“Illustration is a popular art. In order to be effective illustration must be "get able," comprehensible or have and impact upon or solicit a response from, large numbers of people, not just graphically sophisticated people but all types of people who are reasonable enough. Erase this elitism from your mindset, "When you get down to it illustrators are really working for other illustrators." As a regular human being you are in a really good place to experience life in a way that is relevant to share with other regular human beings. Don't worry about not being "special enough". The source of interesting pictures is LIFE. Life is a function of experience (your experience is your life) the type of experience which is most influential to artists and illustrators and their public is visual. Visual experience is called seeing. Do you see what I mean? Picture making is a way of sharing visual experience. People see in terms of pictures. This fact is primary, very basic. Asking your viewer to get your message thorough a design statement is a bit like speaking to a person in a clever code, though sometimes effective it is best to be aware of the basic communication power of pictures. Try to say things in your pictures that come out of your own knowledge and experience and mean it! Always be aware of how your picture would look to another person. Try to reach an audience of intelligent interested people who may or may not be graphically sophisticated. When your picture is complete do an objective "read out" to determine its apparent meaning. Watch out for associate trade off. Your picture even if effective will lose communication power if it reminds your viewer of something else to a degree that distracting. Viewing time consideration: realize that your work will be viewed for a rather short period of time and must make its point quickly. (fine art like, architecture presumes an ongoing relationship with people) Illustration like theater, is "here and then its gone," must come across before the page is turned. Trends and basic techniques used in films, literature, music television, theater, dance, ect. are relevant to illustration and deserve study. Basics such as identifiable leading roles, protagonists antagonist conflict, continued building to a climax, creating tension and resolving it, montage like quick cutting, basic emotional themes: Love, ambition, hate, envy, pride, pathos, ect.”
