, depicting
Hermia and Lysander, from ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (1870) Use reference images to create scenes and characters. This can be as simple as looking at an image to inspire your artwork or creating character sketches and detailed scenes from different angles to create the basis of a picture book world. Some traditional illustration techniques include
watercolor,
pen and ink,
airbrush art,
oil painting,
pastels,
wood engraving, and
linoleum cuts.
John Held, Jr. was an illustrator who worked in a variety of styles and media, including linoleum cuts, pen and ink drawings, magazine cover paintings, cartoons,
comic strips, and set design, while also creating fine art with his animal sculptures and watercolor, many established illustrators attended an art school or college of some sort and were trained in different painting and drawing techniques. Universities and art schools offer specific courses in illustration (for example in the UK, a BA (Hons)
Degree) so this has become a new avenue into the profession. Many illustrators are
freelance, commissioned by publishers (of newspapers, books, or magazines) or advertising agencies. Most
scientific illustrations and
technical illustrations are also known as
information graphics. Among the information graphics, specialists are medical illustrators who illustrate human anatomy, often requiring many years of artistic and medical training. A particularly popular medium with some illustrators of the 1940s and 1950s was
casein, as was egg
tempera. The immediacy and durability of these media suited illustration's demands well. The artwork in both types of paint withstood the rigors of travel to clients and printers without damage. The introduction of computer illustration added a new medium of art for illustrators to try. Computer illustration, or digital illustration, is the use of digital tools to produce images under the direct manipulation of the artist, usually through a pointing device, such as a tablet or a mouse. Computers dramatically changed the industry and today, many cartoonists and illustrators create
digital illustrations using computers,
graphics tablets, and
scanners. Software such as
Adobe Illustrator,
Adobe Photoshop,
GIMP, Corel Painter, and Affinity Designer are now widely used by those professionals. == See also ==