A real gem of a book I accidentally found amongst the library bookshelves, a sequel to 'Pen & Mouse', it features the work of 45 illustrators, questionning whether the torrent of digitally mastered illustration has become soulless; with more and more illustrators returning to their traditional tools of pen and paper, wood, embroidery, collage and oils to achieve the handcrafted style that was thought to be outdated.
HAND TO EYE - contemporary Illustration
Angus Hyland and Roanne Bell
2003 Laurence King Publishing Ltd
I'm always inspired when I come see illustrative work that has been crafted via lengthy time consuming techniques, but with programmes such as Photoshop and Illustrator providing a digital playground free-for-all, much of the final outputs appear the 'same', perhaps restricting levels of creativity.
"With digital illustration, it seems that a certain style becomes fashionable, everyone jumps on it and learns the technique and it becomes boring very quickly...It's the same as knowing how to play the piano doesnt necessarily make you a good musician" (Hungarian Illustrator David Foldvari)
Many images in this book aim to demonstrate that the digital process will never replace the hand-crafted one, however illustration can be rejuvenated by a reaction to its dominance. Tradition and technology can I feel co-exist as much as contradict one another.
I wanted to share this publication as the first time in a while I was inspired to go home and crack open the box of coloured papers, glue, ink, string, whatever I could find! It is relevant to what we have been taught so far.. as long as the ideas are there to start with, the image shouldnt suffer due to a bad job on a mac.
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