Steve, you’ll never be an illustrator
When I was in college, a teacher once told me I might as well give up on illustration because I was so shit at it. To be fair, she may have had a point at the time—she was judging a truly horrendous Kingfisher I’d painstakingly scratched out using the hardest pencil known to mankind. I’ve had a few illustration agents in the UK and in Australia too, but honestly, they’ve been about as helpful to my career in illustration as Mick the Chav was at teaching me to fight.
But as a designer, I love illustration and use it all the time in my work. Over the years, people have even commissioned me to put this particular skill to use—so I can’t be that bad.
I use a wide range of tools to create illustrations, but most of my work starts with a trusty Blackwing pencil. Yeah, I know—yet another bloody designer using this overpriced, fake re-release, but look, I like them. And besides, I stocked up on several boxes before they became pretentious, and for some reason, they just won’t run out.
Beyond that, I mix in a whole range of techniques, from collage to digital work in Procreate on the iPad.
