Searching for My Secret Key

"Style has no formula, but it has a secret key. It is the extension of your personality, the summation of this indefinable net of your feeling, knowledge and experience."    Ernst Haas 

As I begin my illustration journey, I am taking a hard look at children's books that inspire me.  Illustrators stick within one particular style and medium; they need to be recognized on sight by their work.  There are a multitude of mediums that can be used for illustrating books, from painting to collage to printmaking to drawing and on and on.  The trick is to develop a look that will become a visual signature.  When publishers match up illustrators to authors (provided the author isn't also the illustrator), much consideration is given to how well the illustrator's style complements the story.

Here's my dilemma: as a mixed media artist, I dabble in all sorts of mediums and techniques.  I need to narrow my focus so I can practice and improve my illustration skills.  The "jack-of-all-trades" mantra of the mixed media artist just won't work for illustration.  Instead, I need to be a "master of one."  But which one?

This much I know at this point: I will definitely be working in water-based media, not acrylics.  In my sketchbooks, all of my drawings are rendered in traditional watercolors (or water-soluble tools like AquaMarkers) and pen & ink.  My first focus in college was scientific illustration with colored pencils so I frequently utilize pencils (wax-based like Prismacolors & water-soluble like Inktense) as well.  I think that any collage that enters my illustrations will play a secondary role.  I will most definitely not be using photography or sculpture; when others use those mediums for illustration, I love the results but I have next to zero experience with either.  I want to at least begin with familiar, comfortable territory.  I'm not looking to reinvent the wheel.

Once I figure out my own unique tool kit, I'll spend most of my time developing, refining, and perfecting my own illustration style.  How will I draw faces and bodies?  How will I shade?  How will I render backgrounds?  Will I work with a limited palette or every color of the rainbow?  Will my look be whimsical or more realistic?  (Look at any of my work and that question has already been answered!)  There are so many questions and the answers will arise over time through faithful practice and eager exploration.

Outlining How to Get This Journey Underway

"My goal is to surprise myself." - Peter William Brown

That quote is probably the best short & sweet summary possible for what I wish to do during this new adventure.  However, I know it would be helpful for me to map out what I'd like to accomplish.

• I want to become proficient at rendering faces showing a wide range of emotions.  Pick up almost any picture book and the blank, staring face so omnipresent in today's mixed media work is practically nonexistent.  The same holds true for comics.
• I must become much more at ease with drawing bodies in a multitude of poses.  That is going to be a serious challenge as I've never taken a figure drawing class.  Practice, practice, practice!
• I need to move from just drawing to illustration.  There is a difference.  Just like drawings, illustrations can be simple or elaborate and can be rendered in any art medium.  However, illustrating is about helping to tell a story, without or without accompanying text.
• I need to work on rendering environments for my characters to inhabit.  One look through my sketchbooks and you think all my characters are posing on snow drifts.
• I need to ease gently but firmly into a daily writing practice, pulling the stuff in my head onto paper.  I haven't written much fiction in a very, very long time so I'm pretty rusty.

Those are some hefty goals.  Notice that "getting published" is nowhere on this list and there's a couple of reasons why: 1) I seriously need to build some skills and confidence before I even think about sending out manuscripts or portfolios and 2) I don't want to have "getting published" as the yardstick for whether or not I've succeeded.  Right now, and for a good long while, I want to focus on the journey.