5 of the best illustration books for aspiring illustrators
Over the past few years I’ve found the following books to be invaluable to informing my ideas and understanding about illustration. Drawing is at the heart of the job, however good draughtsmanship is just one small piece of the larger puzzle. The role requires you to have a professional understanding of the industry, as well as knowledge of the different areas that illustration can be applied to. Being an illustrator requires you to be continually creative, which isn’t always easy, as well as knowing how to share your work and get noticed (another difficulty). On top of this it’s helpful to cultivate a curiosity and historical knowledge in the visual arts which can be useful to bolster your design decisions. Bearing all of this in mind, I’ve selected these books to cover five different bases from; industry, context, self-promotion, creativity, and history. This library is aimed to give you a well rounded understanding of illustration, and ultimately help you to become a better illustrator.
INDUSTRY
How To Be An Illustrator
Author: Darrel Rees
Published: 2008.
Publisher: Laurence King Publishing
Price: £17.99
The bible for illustrators both emerging and professional, this book shines light on the industry as a whole. Written by Darrel Rees (founder of Heart agency), the book is based on his many years of experience from working as an illustrator and an agent. When you’re in need of guidance, you’ll find the words written in this book are kind and informative, with insightful honesty. It’s an extremely helpful resource and a book I constantly referred to in the early days of my first commissions. On a pragmatic level it covers many bases from portfolios, dealing with clients, invoices and billing, to self-promotion, studios, and agents. The book also includes eight interviews with professional illustrators and looks into their experiences, as well as potential pitfalls to watch out for along the way. This book is a vital tool that answers questions and offers an insight into the industry. It’s also nicely designed, with beautiful illustrations throughout.
CREATIVITY
The Artists Way
Author: Julia Cameron
Published: 1991
Publisher: Souvenir Press
Price: £16.99
Julia Cameron wrote ‘The Artists Way’ as a 12 week self-help course to help creatives ‘discover and recover their creative selves’. This books isn’t about illustration specifically but is about creativity in general and can be extremely useful if you’re in an artistic rut. Written in 1991, the book has a spiritual undertone which might be off-putting for some, but the core message is ultimately useful and aimed to help artists get over their self-imposed barriers, doubts, and criticism. Being an illustrator requires you to be creative all the time, even if you don’t necessarily feel like it, and this book can be a useful tool to enable you to keep tapping into that energy in order to avoid feeling stagnant in your work. At the core of the course is a dedication to write ‘morning pages’; daily stream of conscious style handwriting exercises, as well as the intention to take yourself on ‘artists dates’ and many other weekly tasks to get you thinking laterally. This book is a helpful tool to help reinvigorate your practice.
CONTEXT
Illustration a Theoretical and Contextual Perspective
Author: Alan Male
Published: 2017
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Price: £28.99
Aimed at advanced students of illustration, this book may come across a little dry and academic in tone, however it is a thorough investigation into the medium of visual communication through drawing. Alan Male puts forward that there are five different contexts of illustration which are; information, commentary, narrative fiction, persuasion, and identity. He asserts that any brief initiated will conform to at least one of these contexts, and without a context an artwork cannot be described as an illustration. In contrast to a fine art painting for example, an illustration is a tool for visual communication. This is all useful to know if you’re starting out and not sure where to begin. Based on his many years of working as an illustrator and course leader of the BA (Hons) Illustration course at University College Falmouth, Alan Male takes an authoritative and impassioned tone on the subject. The book is divided into four chapters and covers many topics from answering a brief, to visual language, and how to generate ideas. Overall a useful book if you’re wanting to delve into a more theoretical understanding of illustration.
SELF PROMOTION
Show Your Work
Author: Austin Kleon
Published: 2014
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Price: £9.99
A fair amount of being an illustrator requires a good deal of self-promotion. If you’re struggling with getting your work out there, finding an audience or getting noticed, then you might enjoy ‘Show Your Work’. It’s a short but inspirational read, layered with multiple references from art history to popular culture in which Austin Kleon puts forward self-discovery as an antidote to self-promotion. He suggests to think of your work as a never ending process and that individuals should aim to build sharing into your routine, because ‘in order to be found you have to be findable’. He puts forward 10 ways to share your creativity in order to get discovered, and describes it as ‘a book for people who hate the very idea of self-promotion’.
HISTORY
History of Illustration
Author: Susan Doyle, Jaleen Grove, Whitney Sherman
Published: 2018
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Price: £59.99
Illustration is one of the oldest forms of visual communication, however you’d be surprised to know that this is one of the only books available on the history of it. It’s a little pricey but a welcome edition to my book shelf. This extensive anthology covers huge ground of global visual communication, starting as early as cave paintings from the pre-historic era. ‘History of illustration provides a global overview of illustration practices from before the development of written language, to the digital age. As the first textbook on the topic, it fills significant gaps in the history of art and visual culture.’ This book took five years to produce, with multiple writers, as well as three editors. For the contemporary illustrator it’s vital to understand the power of images through the ages, in order to enrich your practice and have a better awareness of the historical context. This is a book I would definitely recommended.