Illustration: Aspects and Directions

“We are unequivocally against the teaching of illustration as a subject in our art schools’ curriculum. The training an illustrator needs is what might be called a training in the practice of the graphic arts. That training varies in content from generation to generation, but factors of design, analysis and drawing must be a common part to such a training. Practical observation is a necessary part of this training, whether it is carried out with a pen and sketch book or with a camera, or both.

Technical knowledge of the graphic processes can follow. The amount of technical training depends on how or in what media the illustrator is going to work. The one essential is that he should be able to work in a size, manner and medium with which he feels completely at ease, and to know that his drawings will look at least as well when they are printed or thrown on a T.V. screen as they do on his board.

An illustrator should always remember that he is judged by his printed work; that is his ‘original’. What his actual drawing looks like, whether it is made up of lost of little bits stuck together, or that half of it is obliterated with process white, is of no consequence.”

— Bob Gill & John Lewis, Illustration: Aspects and Directions