The love of illustration.

No, it’s not art. For the most part it is not art. But what could one call an illustrator but an artist? No question about that. It’s odd. One can bullshit one’s way in photography. One can bullshit one’s way in real fine art, in real museums and galleries. But it’s really hard to bullshit in illustration. I’m thrilled to see my old love making a return with a vengeance. Perhaps it is because the great visual form of photography has become so bastardized. Our visual tolerance for photography is boundless. Some people need the highest quality HD flat panel from a specialist store in order to watch television and movies. But that same person looks at a police car chase through a grainy jerking dashcam with the same intensity as the newest epic movie rental. More so. Something about real danger, real events and the medium becomes secondary, the camera work incidental. Illustration sprays itself across the world’s surfaces with glee, invading every crevice of our visual culture. But for the most part this is one visual field where one does need years of training. Self-taught illustrators are few, great ones a rare breed. An architect might be found designing a new bag for LVMH, a fashion designer produces new work standing behind a camera, our visual culture is in an amazing exciting phase of cross pollination and flux. And in there is inserted the illustrator, part graphic designer, part fine artist, but seldom is it the other way round. Not many photographers simply produce a portfolio of illustration. It’s too hard. It takes years, even the intervention of the computer meant one could not take one’s eye off the drawn line or shape, and one’s hand learned how to do it with a drawing tablet or mouse. It is a fabulous profession, filled with great intellects and wits, philosophers, gentlemen, comedians, clowns and louts. Take a pause next time when coming upon an illustration that grabs you and give it the few moments it deserves. Illustration is not a field that hides or veils its effort. Usually all the years of observation and practice, even in other media, are apparent. It is one of the more transparent of professions. I’ve checked back in.