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Drawing and Illustration
A while back I posted this - which in turn references some thinking of mine that goes back 20 years or more.
Then yesterday as I was catching up on some Instapaper reading I discovered this little gem.
I actually think that most people don’t realize or think about the difference between Drawing and Illustration. They think they’re the same. They’re not. Drawing is an act, whereas Illustration (as I define it) is a profession. Illustration can involve drawing (it can expand beyond drawing too, obviously), but it’s actually the act of thinking and problem solving. I think I’ve mentioned this before but Tim O’Brien once said something to the effect that the sketch-phase of a project IS the Illustration… I couldn’t agree more, despite my work being incredibly different from Tim O’Brien’s.
I just want to add that to me the ‘drawing’ is the creative process - the idea generation - the brainstorming mode - and has no limitations. Thus drawings have no restrictions placed upon them. They are unto themselves ‘it’.
Illustration moves to the ‘clever’ phase - in my model. The clever ties that open free for all thinkning into the message that needs to be conveyed. I am not saying drawing is not clever - cannot be clever. Clever is simply stage 2 in my communication process. How do I take that drawing and tie it back to everything else that is important to my communications.