The dimensions were 16m x 2m high and it was printed digitally onto adhesive vinyl.
The Zoo asked for 14 specific species found in the Great southern ocean to be depicted. The printer asked for a file at 100% with a 100 dpi resolution so I had to get a new computer to cope. It turned out to be 3.5 GB as a flattened file.
Stephen Huxley talks to illustrator Nigel Buchanan
>Nigel Buchanan’s illustrations are full of ideas and executed with the delightful visual appeal that is borne of great skill. Buchanan’s career spans over two decades working nationally and internationally. His modest personality belies the very auspicious talent of a man whose personal warmth and insightful conversation reveal a deep understanding of his profession.
> I interviewed Buchanan to find out what it takes to work and survive as a successful freelance illustrator.
SH: Can you tell us what you do?
NB: I have had a long and happy career in illustration with a focus on ideas-based images. I have a wonderful studio in Surry Hills in Sydney, which I share with a number of other illustrators and designers and by and large have a consistent flow of work from many and varied sources.
.SH: How long have you been a freelancer?
NB: Freelancing is really the only feasible mode for working as an illustrator. There are probably opportunities with some specialised book publishers or universities for full-time employment, but generally illustrators need a variety of sources to keep a consistent work flow. I have freelanced from day one over 20 years ago and have grown to appreciate the advantages and ignore the disadvantages. Work is always deadline driven, but there is freedom to fit the hours in when it suits and there is always the option to turn workdown if there is too much time pressure. Holiday and sick pay, however, are a foreign concept to the freelancer.
SH: What are the issues that need to be considered by any freelancer?
NB: There are a number of things that must be undertaken and maintained in order to get new clients. Firstly, a profile of some sort must be the first priority. Clients must know you exist. This is where an agent can be very useful in the early stage of a career, but it is always important to use some initiative to create your own relationships with clients. Advertising, entering awards and joining associations as well as seeing as many publishers and art buyers as possible are all ways of getting your work and name out there. With each contact there needs to be a reminder left with them in the form of samples or directions to a website and contact details and then of course making contact must be easy. A basic knowledge of how to run a business and set up superannuation is a must. Get an accountant.
SH: Did it take you long to become successful?
NB: Success was easy when I started inthe 80s because the times were booming and illustration was highly sought after and widely used. It is true that the stronger the economy the more illustration is used. So to maintain a relevancy and a consistent workflow during the inevitable ups and downs of demand it has been crucial to keep a style that is adaptable to many areas. To have a style that is too specifically of one genre invites limitedworkflow. For instance science fiction or comic book styles may not be able to be used in a wide variety of places so I have been very mindful to try to maintain a versatile look and feel to my work so that it is perceived to be adaptable for editorial, packaging, annual reports, bookcovers, web pages, theatre posters and advertising of all sorts. I think this has been my key to getting work over so many years.
SH: How have you changed over the years as a freelancer from both a creative and a technology point of view?
NB: I suspect that my work has not greatly changed over time, but my technique certainly has. For the better part of 20 years I used the very labour intensive airbrush as the basis for the final work.It involved masking, tracing down of the drawing, mixing gouache, cleaning the airbrush regularly, cutting stencils from acetate and getting the final piece scanned or shipped to the client. After a year or so dabbling with my iMac a couple of years ago I took the plunge and bought a wonderful big flat screen and a big beefy Macintosh thinking that a gradual transition to digital would occur. I had so much fun finding new ways to create stuff that I haven’t used the airbrush since.
> The things I enjoy most about the transition is that I have only scratched the surface of what is available in the programs I use, being Photoshop and Illustrator. I have doubled my speed of rendering and delivering, but I try to never lose sight of the fact that the end result is always based on an image that must come from one’s mind’s eye and the subsequent drawing.
> I am still facing challenges with computer rendering, especially getting the subtlety of tone and maintaining a degree of spontaneity. Often when I read a script for the first time or even when the art director describes the story over the phone, an image will pop into my head, which will quite often end up being the final illustration.The challenge I face when that happens is to stay true to that very fragile image nestling in the back of my mind how to get it down on paper without losing its integrity. The best way is to immediately draw a thumbnail the size of a postage stamp. Its a bit like a filtering system that I use: if you can get an image fresh from your own mind and use all subconscious influences from past experiences and dreams that are all swirling around in there and avoid distractions like reference books, other people’s work, fashion trends that you may be attracted to and easy tricks in computer programs, then what comes out will have an integrity that has a value that I can’t overstate.
SH: Illustration has certainly been in transition lately
.NB: Over the past couple of decades there has been a shift away from strong ideasbased images to illustrate and enhance stories towards a more decorative and fashion-based use. There have been a number of quick space-filling options that can be cobbled together from stock images and digital collages. There is an erosion of individual styles – a bit like the erosion of biodiversity. The end result is a plethora of generic illustrations which tend to look the same. I think we can all recognise the 70s 'Wallpaper’ magazine look and the‘ tracing a photo in Illustrator look’ along with the ‘photo collage and drop shadow’ look. Variety breathes life into illustration. It makes each different style look more intriguing. It makes every publication look richer. you are looking at. Only by studying an object for some time and drawing it can you fully appreciate the complexities of light play and form, but I tend to use the remembered version of what I have studied rather than having the reference in front of me while undertaking the working drawing for an illustration. I use my flawed memory as a filter; it gives me an opportunity to stylise the drawing without the distraction of the reference.
SH: Do you still enjoy what you do?
NB: I still absolutely love being a freelance illustrator and cannot imagine doing anything else. Each job that comes in presents its own challenges and has its own specific requirements. A big part of being successful at this business is in the interpretation of the brief. It takes some time to learn how to hone the feel of the llustration to the job at hand. There are subtle differences between a job for say an article in the Financial Review and an annual report for a financial institution; one is making a point, the other is presenting an image of themselves. In advertising work there are big differences between booklets for an anti-psychotic drug and posters for banking products so the approach needs to be carefully thought about before the first sketches take place. I really enjoy that aspect of the work. I love the part about coming up with ideas, design and colour, concepts, metaphors, interpretation and subtexts, and tapping into the subconscious.
SH: If you sat down in front of a class of keen new freelancers what are the words of advice you would give them?
NB: For those starting out there a few priceless pieces of advice. Be easy to work with. This can make the difference of half your workload. If you are difficult to work with you won’t get work. Make it an easy and trouble free experience for your client and they will come back for more. Promote only that work that you want more of, not work that you are capable of. This is one of the few methods of controlling the type of work you do.
> Make sure you know what each job is about, know who it’s for, know the client’s expectations, ask as many questions as you have to in order to get all the parameters in which to work before you start. Every job counts. Put all you’ve got into every job, regardless of scale or budget. People see every job you do; they are your best form of advertising. > Be your own harshest critic. You can often get away with setting your standard at less than the highest possible. Be accessible by email, website, phone, fax, business cards and promos.Advertise and enter awards and join things. Your best source of reference is life as we know it – travel, read.enquire, watch and sketch. I’d love to see more illustration enthusiasts, art directors that guide and encourage new talent and old for that matter.
> The jobs that are most fulfilling are those in which the artistic director makes it known that he or she cares about the final product and that they are expecting a brilliant job. When they are involved they can be an informed and intelligent sounding board for your ideas. Unfortunately this interaction
is becoming less frequent. I feel that art directors are increasingly neglecting their duty of care in that there seems to be an unqualified acceptance of generic fashion driven and decorative illustrations in editorialwork. An illustration can make you laugh; it can reveal places from someone’s dreams and from someone’s nightmares; it can challenge perceptions, it can challenge logic. A publication gains a certain nobility when it has wonderful thoughtful and provocative illustrations. Illustration should strike a chord and rest in the subconscious of the viewer; it should move them to interpret for themselves. I would love to encourage as many individual styles as possible. Set your own agenda and make ideas-based illustrations. We need variety. Look at the work of people who you admire the most; the chances are that their style and way of thinking is unique to them.> There is a big difference between skill and talent, which is relevant here; skill is a learned dexterity that can be overly relied on, whereas talent is something inherently yours. Capitalise on your talent, i.e. do what only you can do and do it well. It’s the old law of supply and demand: if you have something which is uniquely yours and in demand, you are in a strong position, but if you are producing the same work as a multitude of others you will be less so.
The other small one below was for the same issue. This one was about the glory days of the big old family stationwagon. They have been almost totally replaced with SUVs which are also facing extinction as fuel prices rise.
The advisory board they had to help set up has some industry heavyweights such as Steven Heller and Brad Holland.
This will be the first time for many years that I have had stock for sale. The site isn't open for business yet but have a look at what they have set up so far. Click the logo....
