How is it
different to fine art?
Why is it
different? (if it is different)
Because it is
specialised. Not everyone can illustrate. This may simply be due to a
misunderstanding as to the purpose of an illustration, but even so. It does
seem some people don’t have the necessary foot in the world of words.
‘Illustration exists
that which begins life
in the form of
words.’
This was on a
handout I received when I was attending a course at my local college. It sounds
definitive doesn’t it? Nice and solid. In fact it misses out some important
areas, whilst simultaneously raising questions about many of the paintings we now
consider fine art. It also ignores the grey areas between graphic design and
illustration and fine art and illustration.
Maybe we can start by saying an illustration is definitely not defined by style: illustration comes in an enormous range of styles from painterly to linear:
Sarah Wilde
to almost abstract to ornately decorative:
Alphonse Muchaand from hyper-realistic to highly stylised.
Exactly as fine art does in fact.
Having done that
I think we can go on to say it can be
defined by its purpose and its content:
If it seeks to
illuminate something, to convey information or add dimensions to a story then
it’s (probably) an illustration.
Sir John Tenniel, The Mad Hatter's Tea Party
With both
definitions we can also challenge the History of Art: if the definition of an
illustration is to seek to illuminate and augment something which begins life as words... then many of the great masterpieces
of fine art are actually all illustrations!
All of those
paintings of the Greek Myths?
Etc etc., by the
above definition are in fact illustrations.
The earliest
examples of such work are the illustrated Herbals of Europe. These books often had
woodblock printed illustrations. Unfortunately equally often they bore little
relation to the actual herbs they were supposed to identify…(Pavord 2005).
However, the
discipline of botanical Illustration continued to develop and the 18th
and 19thC (Just leaping forward a little) saw a great flowering of illustrative
talent in the form of satirical and political cartoons. From Benjamin Franklin
in the USA to Honoré Daumier in France and James Gillray in the UK the practise
of lampooning one’s political leaders became an essential part of contemporary
culture (not just in the countries I’ve listed of course). And it was these
political cartoons which heralded the beginning of the comic in the West. The
history of comics – or Manga - is rather
different in
Comics are still
seen as sub literate by many, in fact the adoption of the term ‘Graphic Novel’
is an effort to distance contemporary work from this unwelcome reputation. So
you sometimes come across anomalies such as works of say twenty pages being
referred to as graphic novels. To me these are still comics. And the term
Graphic Novel only describes a book length narrative. But I am a pedant.
Whatever you care to call them they are still illustration and they bring me almost to the end of this somewhat
discursive ramble on what illustration is.
Reading through this post I can see one or two things I’ve omitted (one or two hundred more like!).
For example Hogarth is a major figure in the development of what we now call
illustration and I haven’t mentioned him. Well I have now. And I shall also do
a post focussing on his work sometime in the future - so that takes care of
Hogarth.
As for the other
omissions, well, they will have to stand. A whirlwind tour such as this can
only include so much. I do hope however that I have destroyed the myth that
illustration is a style, not a discipline in its own right. We have looked,
very briefly, at illustration’s role in design and packaging – it has even been
used to decorate stores, helping to create the store’s brand; we have seen how it can help convey
information or add to a story – or even tell one without any words. And we have
also seen that illustration has a long and illustrious history.
And it is still developing: from wonderful children's books to t-shirts to design work for clothing stores such as Marks and Spencers and companies such as Howies. Illustration is a dynamic discipline which I think makes our world a visually more interesting and exciting place.
Okay, I’m an evangelist!
Thanks to Sonya for giving me the impetus to write this post.
I apologise for the problems with font size and any typos I've missed- unfortunately Typepad doesn't seem to like documents imported from Word. I don't blame it. I don't like Word either. If you spot any mistakes or things which don't make sense please let me know in the comments and I'll rectify them. Thanks!
I did no research for this post - it all came from my head as a result of reading and thinking and observing over a few years- words waiting to be born, you might say. So there's no bibliography, however apart from the books linked in the text you might also find the following interesting:
There is an essay in Illuminations called Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction which is very interesting. Actually all of Walter Benjamin's work is interesting, and that of his colleague Theodore Adorno - particularly his work on the 'Culture Industry'. Very relevant to Western Culture today
The Fundamentals of Illustration
