An illustration is a visualization or a depiction made by an artist, such as a drawing, sketch, painting, photograph, or other kinds of the image of things seen, remembered, or imagined, using a graphical representation.
During our education research, we came across a short film created by an illustrator during his last year of art school that describes in a short video “what is illustration”. An art illustrator tells a story through their drawings.
From the creator: “This is a short film about illustration, which is based on a poem that I wrote in my last year of art school, needless to say; studying illustration. It concerns a fictitious congratulatory letter written by a proud tutor to a recent graduate. So in summation, a letter of recommendation from the head of illustration ( a man of considerable reputation).
What types of illustration are there?
- Techniques – traditional and modern
- Styles
Now we will go more in-depth for the individual sections:
as our attempt in creating a comprehensive, yet easy-to-read article about illustration.
By the way, you may be interested to check out the Top Character Design Trends for 2022.
Mike Redman – Living room studio
We figured out that many people get confused by the definitions given for a “designer” and an “illustrator”, and even if they get a notion of what an illustrator does, they get lost in the next stage – recognizing different types of illustration and explaining what they like. First thing first, let’s
Learn the difference between a “designer” and an “illustrator”
It is very hard to tell these apart, but you won’t be far from the truth if you say that:
Daniel Tan – Sportify App Landing Page
A designer
often relies on a set of elements – images, typography, etc. and organizes them in engaging compositions. The main task of the designer is to focus the attention of the viewer on a certain visual concept, idea, detail, part of the design, and to make an idea appealing and memorable.
Loulou and Tummie – Millenials
An illustrator
more often produces the imagery themselves and not necessarily work on the whole design of the “product”. The illustrations are often supportive to other mediums – for example, illustrations often accompany newspaper articles, books, magazines and they most often serve to support and better translate ideas, texts, and/or further explain them. More often than not, illustrators try to keep the balance between visual and text and try not to steal all the focus on the illustration.
Still, many illustrators and designers would switch hats and act as the opposite – nowadays, competition in art fields is fierce and artists have to be able to show multidisciplinary skills.
Ok, so what is the definition of illustration then?
Source: Freepik
One of the definitions we like is from VisualArtsCork.com:
An illustration is a drawing, painting or printed work of art which explains, clarifies, illuminates, visually represents, or merely decorates a written text, which may be of a literary or commercial nature
How illustration became what it is today…
A 16th-c. Ottoman miniature by Matrakçi Nasuh
Illustration: The Hours of Catherine of Cleves
Sainte Catherine by Unknown Flemish artist
To answer this question we have to look back in history. Before photography existed, the only way to express ideas was with the help of illustrations. Often in more recent years, illustrations had to be quite realistic, because there was no photography to serve this purpose. Logically, a huge market for illustration was magazines, newspapers, and books. With time, illustrators gained more freedom and their creativity and originality were now more valued than their technical skills and ability to draw realistically. That also explains the majority of styles in illustrations that appeared. But before moving to the most common illustrations styles,
let’s talk about the types of illustration, based on the technique used.
We can basically divide the types of illustration, based on the technique used, into two large groups: Traditional illustration and Modern style.
Techniques for making illustrations changed over time, as materials are also changing and evolving. Artists relied on paper, paints, pencils, but with the digital era evolution, even artists accustomed to traditional mediums and materials started working digitally – with the help of 2D and 3D software such as Photoshop and 3DMax, and Maya, for example. The digital tools and techniques imitate traditional materials and effects achieved with them and it is easy to switch different materials and experiment.
Some words about the traditional types of illustration…
One of the oldest types of illustration was the hand-drawn one. Another popular technique was:
1. Woodcutting
It is an ancient technique that you can see in some of the world’s oldest surviving manuscripts. It was popular during the Middle Ages and became the illustration type of choice after the invention of the printing press. Carved block illustrations made it possible for mass-produced books to have beautiful illustrations all printed from the same master cutting. The Metropolitan Museum of Art explains that woodcut illustrations were also extremely popular in feudal Japan.
Distinctive for this technique are the contrasting colors if any; the contrast between dark and light areas in the illustration, as well the relatively big strokes. It is still a preferred technique of many contemporary illustrators who love the rougher feel and the textured look of these illustrations.
Here is a video that will show you a little bit of the work that goes behind such type of illustration – woodcut technique:
Other types of illustration, according to the technique, which requires some preparation, material base and specific knowledge about the production process are the
2. Metal etchings
In traditional pure etching, a metal (usually copper, zinc, or steel) plate is covered with waxy ground that is resistant to acid. The artist then scratches off the ground with a pointed etching needle where he or she wants a line to appear in the finished piece, so exposing the bare metal. The plate is then dipped in a bath of acid and the acid “bites” into the metal where it is exposed, leaving behind lines sunk into the plate. The remaining ground is then cleaned off the plate. The plate is inked all over, and then the ink is wiped off the surface, leaving only the ink in the etched lines. The plate is then put through a high-pressure printing press together with a sheet of paper and the paper picks up the ink from the etched lines, making a print. You can read more about the different metal etching techniques on Wikipedia’s page.
Depending on the metal etching technique used, the illustration can look like watercolor (aquatint) or it can look like a pencil drawing – with very fine lines and hatching. The above 3 examples are showing the versatility that can be achieved in illustration with these techniques.
You can see a very interesting video showing the creation process of such an illustration here:
Now let’s have a look at the type of illustration that doesn’t require much of preparation to start working, and that’s:
3. Pencil Illustrations
Maybe one of the most popular types of illustration is the pencil one. It is rich material, which allows you to create soft shadows and transitions, as well creating sharp, accurate lines. Sometimes, illustrators choose to keep the pencil sketch very loose and to draft with a pencil – later on, they finish off the illustration with another material.
Above you saw 3 different approaches to pencil illustration – monochrome, with clean lines and richness of the line weight; one with colored pencil with very smooth and soft shading of the volumes; and one rough, sketchy and dynamic illustration, because of the energetic line work and the search for shapes and volumes. The last approach is very common for creating initial character design concepts.
You can watch a video, in which an artist talks about working with pencil, his process and you can observe him working:
The next type of illustration, based on the technique used, which is also often mistaken for a pencil one is the
4. Charcoal illustration
Charcoal illustrations are often not as precise as pen and pencil illustrations but are a preferred choice for illustrating short stories, fast sketches, nooks. Charcoal’s blendability lets the artist create a range of textures, representing materials and shadows, people, objects, and the natural world. Artists often use fingers and tissues to blend the soft material, smudge, and create smooth and soft shadows.
In the above illustrations, you can see how the charcoal helped in creating a rough, loose sketch of a horse. Then, another artist made very fine detailing of a human face in another piece. Last, but not least, an illustrator created soft shadows, blending and texturing. Probably, the main difference, compared to pencil illustration is, that the line of the charcoal is always slightly thicker, softer, and darker in quality. The reason why examples 2 and 3 are so different is because of the way the charcoal is produced: charcoal pencils consisting of compressed charcoal powder and a gum binder, which produces a fine, sharp line; while vine charcoal provides a smooth, softer line.
You can see how the material allows you to achieve these effects in the following video with tips on drawing with charcoal:
Talking about the soft quality of an illustration and smooth transitions in shading, we should mention as next technique on our list of types of illustration:
5. Lithography
Lithography comes from the Greek word for stone. Originally, the technique used an image drawn with oil, fat, or wax onto the surface of a smooth, level lithographic limestone plate. Today, most types of high-volume books and magazines, especially when illustrated in color, are printed with offset lithography, which has become the most common form of printing technology since the 1960s. You can read more about the technique in Wikipedia’s article dedicated to the topic.
You can notice that the above lithography illustration examples share one quality, although they represent different styles and imagery – there is a certain level of softness about all three of them. At some spots, the color even looks washed out and pale.
Watch a video of this printmaking technique:
Another type of illustration with which one can achieve softness, smooth transitions, and lots of nuancing is the:
6. Watercolor illustrations
In watercolor illustrations, the main thing is to use color pigments and to create nuances and different transparencies by adding water to the color. The overall feeling of watercolor illustrations is soft, airy, with lots of depth. Illustrators prefer it for illustrating cookbooks, feminine and fashion types of illustration, children's book illustrations, as it is very light. It is one of the easiest ways of creating splashes of color, merging one into another – common threats for the mentioned illustration styles.
You can watch a wonderful demonstration of watercolor illustration here:
As a cause of the watercolor illustration, we can point out the
7. Gouache illustrations
Gouache paint is similar to watercolor modified to make it opaque. It offers rich, thicker, bit darker shades than watercolor and can be even reworked some years later. Commercial artists often use gouache for works such as posters, illustrations, comics, and other design work. Most 20th-century animations used it to create an opaque color on a cel with watercolor paint used for the backgrounds. Using gouache as “poster paint” is desirable for its speed as the paint layer dries completely by the relatively quick evaporation of the water. You can read more about the technique on Wikipedia.
You can watch a wonderful demonstration of gouache illustration here:
The next type of illustration that we are going to look at is the
8. Acrylics illustration
Acrylics is one of the most preferred techniques for beginners – it is relatively easier to work with them, than with watercolor or oils. Still, the artist can achieve both similar effects to oils and watercolors. One can paint with them on almost any kind of surface and they become water-resistant, once they are dry. These paints are very versatile as they also come as fluorescents, metallics, and other interesting effects.
You can see a process of creating an acrylic illustration here:
A little bit different from the last techniques we looked at is the
9. Collage illustration
The name comes from the French coller, which means ‘to glue’. It is a technique, where the artwork is made from an assemblage of different forms, often from different materials, to form a new whole. These types of illustrations are hugely popular in recent years and even are considered an inspiration for the big trend – material design. Often, illustrators use the shading from the different layers of their collage to achieve a beautiful 3D effect and to achieve depth. You can see in the above illustrations, how this technique was interpreted beautifully by different artists.
Another great process video for this type of illustration; the illustration is then used for a cover of a book:
And last, but not least is the
10. Pen-and-Ink Illustration
Illustrating with ink allows the artist to create strong areas of contrast. Most of the illustrations are done by using one tint of ink on a light surface, which again helps achieve high contrasting pieces. Inks are widely accessible and affordable material, easy to transport, and to work expressively with. Maybe you remember the high contrasts of the woodcut? Well, inking allows you to be more mobile and to create even finer lines.
Sometimes, achieving gradations in value is hard, unless, working with ink and brush as it is in the first example illustration. Value can be achieved also by using dots and strokes with different weights and different distances from each other, as in the second example. In the third illustration, the artist wonderfully combined heavily shaded, rich in value areas with elegant, simple ink linework.
The following video is a beautiful demonstration of a Swedish ink master:
Modern styles and types of illustration techniques
As we discussed before, with the advancement of electronics and stepping into the so-called digital era, the possibilities for artists to express themselves grew rapidly and more freely. The first electronic handwriting device was invented back in 1888. Since then, the technology became more sophisticated and many illustrators and designers are accustomed to using graphics tablets nowadays – devices, which are connected to a computer. Artists use the tablet’s pen and surface to draw and the device transfers the image in the opened drawing software – such as Photoshop. Artrage, Ikscape and other. The software programs imitate different traditional brushes, pens, various drawing tools, paper, and effects.
We can divide the illustrations produced digitally into two large groups:
1. Freehand digital illustrations
As you can see from the pictures below, the freehand digital illustrations allow very smooth light and shadow transitions, making a complex background and fine detail. Most of these illustrations are in a raster format and they can be scaled up and printed only to certain sizes before they lose quality. Read more about the differences between raster and vector images.
2. Vector graphics
In the other group, we put vector graphics/illustrations. The way the images are produced allows scaling them up and down to any size, without any quality loss. By rule, it is harder to make a smooth transition with vectors but vector has their advantages in producing a certain style of imagery. This makes it very popular for web illustration. You can easily recognize the vector by its clear outlines, shapes, and definition.
We are quite sure the examples we have given so far are not nearly enough, so here are some curated illustrations and portfolios we found on the web – mesmerizing examples of the different types of illustration:
Ok, at this point you’d probably be interested to find out even more.
The first part of our guide in the world of illustration is half done and now we are moving to the next part:
Styles in illustration
We start with a small remark – by style, we mean the different genres in illustration (or at least the most popular ones). However, style is used also for the individual and very specific way of expressing the individual artists, but this could be defined much harder if possible at all. Long story short, we can recognize the following genres in the illustration:
Concept Art
These types of illustration include Fantasy illustrations, illustrations for Gaming, Animation, and One-Pager Fine Illustrations. The term concept first appeared back in the 1930s, used probably first from Disney and it was used in the automotive industry as well. In concept illustration, the artist creates several interpretations (concept) of a certain theme, from which the client can choose and see the different stages, development, and the process of creation of the illustration.
Some of the comic/graphic novel illustration authors you might want to see:
Illustrations for children
Children's book illustrations can be very diverse – from realistic, full with details illustrations to very simplified, child-like, naive drawings. It depends on the story, the target age group, and many more. Nevertheless, children’s illustrations are colorful, narrating, there is always something happening. The characters are cute and friendly.
Some of the children’s illustration authors you might want to see:
Comics/ Graphic Novels
According to Wikipedia comic is a medium used to express ideas by images, often combined with text or other visual information. Comics frequently take the form of juxtaposed sequences of panels of images. Often textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia indicate dialogue, narration, sound effects, or other information. The size and arrangement of panels contribute to narrative pacing. Cartooning and similar forms of illustration are the most common image-making means in comics.
Some of the comic/graphic novel illustration authors you might want to see:
Books / Publications / Editorial
Book cover illustration by Katie Harnett
Did you know that luxury books on geographical topics and natural history, and some children’s books, had printed illustrations that were then colored by hand in Europe, none of the experimental techniques for true color printing became widely used before the mid-19th century?
Today, a book illustration could be designed in any technique and then printed. This style is very versatile and depends on the vision of the author and the subject of the book. Illustrators try to create eye-catching covers in order to compete with the piles of books in bookshops. It is a very specific style, which demands catching the viewer’s attention, giving a hint of what is inside the book, and sometimes, it is the cover that sells the book (or publication).
Some of the book illustration authors you might want to see:
Advertising
Illustration by Ron Wang
While book and publication illustrations should be supporting and illuminating a certain idea, without stealing the show from the text, an advertising type of illustration is meant to do just that – grab your attention and make a lasting impression on one big idea or brand/product. Many companies choose illustration as the medium to send their message to the audience, because the style better translates the idea than photography, for example.
Some of the advertising illustrations you might want to see:
Packaging
The apothecary of Aureum – packaging illustration
The rise of digital technologies in the latter half of the 20th century allowed businesses to scale rapidly and become global. With unprecedented competition, packaging came to be the way of differentiating the product on the shelf. For some businesses such as jewelry, bakery, children’s products, illustration is the most successful choice. It offers a personalized touch, elegance, and custom feel.
Some of the packaging illustrations you might want to see:
Branding / Logo
Cartoon characters of employees of real estate, by GraphicMama
Branding/Logotype of illustration is a very specific style, requiring a certain set of skills. For example, a logo should be recognizable and readable in smaller sizes. Therefore, the illustrator should carefully plan the details of the logo. Logos should be simple, yet grabbing attention and memorable. Sometimes, businesses need more than a logo illustration, but mascots, cartoonized versions of their employees, or products. With their help, the brands enhance their presence and impression on customers.
Some of the branding/logo illustrations you might want to see:
Now that we gave some definitions for illustration, here is a video wrapping some ideas up:
We hope you liked this article and that you were able to dive into the magical world of illustration! Let us know how we did, what else you might want to know. We would be happy to add it to the article!
Cheers!
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