Illustration without appropriation
Art by Miranda Branley
How do you illustrate a culture without appropriating? Is there a “right” way to learn art fundamentals? How do you balance raising kids and an illustration career? And what if you get bored drawing the same thing over and over again for a children’s book? This week, Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry discuss these questions and provide their answers.
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SHOW LINKS
INTRO
Editor’s Note: Apologies for Lee’s audio, we had to cut together two different sections for this episode! Audio clears up around 25:20.
We appreciate your questions! Keep asking them here.
APPROPRIATION VS APPRECIATION
A few people have expressed concern about Lee making a Tarot deck without him knowing much about tarot or the culture around witches and tarot.
The guys generally don’t take a cash based project that they are not passionate about. It should be both financially viable and something that they can find their passion in. Lee was attracted to the form of the Tarot deck, because it is a narrative project with open subject matter and no sequential images. Once Lee stumbled upon the idea of the Tarot deck, he was drawn to it as a result.
Will feels like gatekeeping in art is a net negative. Gatekeepers tend to be a loud minority. You’re free to do whatever you want to do, but if you don’t know about the genre you want to work in, it can ring as inauthentic. Make sure you do your research and try to be authentic to the subject matter.
You can’t operate in a void, you have to be a part of cultures and subcultures and so forth. Lee has reached out to people who are experts in that world and is doing his due research by talking and listening to authentic voices.
There is an important distinction between appropriation and appreciation. Appropriation is exploitative, whereas appreciation requires research, immersion to some extent, and listening to people within the culture. Could a non-Christian illustrate a Bible? Jake as a Christian would not take offense to this. However, if it was done disrespectfully or without enough research then Jake would not be interested in the work.
Will did a lot of fandom work with his Little Heroes series, and would approach friends for advice on specific shows or fandoms and would pay them for their recommendations. There is a huge spectrum of fans within a fandom — Jake has not seen all of Neon Genesis Evangelion, but does he have the right to do fanart? He thinks he should be able to make art of something even if he hasn’t become fully immersed in the show or the piece of entertainment.
Lee did a Batman art piece, and he doesn’t know a bunch about Batman or the story or character. But he wouldn’t have done it if he weren’t ultimately interested in it.
It also depends on if you’re contributing to the culture or not, and if your contributions are good or not.
Lee strongly dislikes when skateboarders grab their board stinkbug, which is poor form. While most people won’t ever notice, when someone grabs their board stinkbug Lee is irked.
LEARNING ART FUNDAMENTALS
Hello! My name is Rikard (I´m from Sweden if this message is a bit wonky) and I started with SVS this year. So far, I have gone through the first four basic lessons. I like them a lot. And have done most of the exercises. Now I had warmed-up with a lot of basic exercises, to get back to drawing, at the end of last year but still felt important to do them.
My question is: I think you all put quite a lot of focus on not trying to be completely correct but to more make reasonable guesses when doing the basic exercises, make it looks believable. And I like that but as a student, I think it can be a bit misleading as you guys probably have made a lot of boring still lifes and technical drawings with a focus on getting it more correct previously?
It's boring to do, but that's what makes you then be able to make reasonable guesses? It would have been fun to hear you guys talk about these types of basic exercises, like still-life of geo shapes. Or trying to master perspective like Scott Robertson. How important are they (the basic exercises)? Especially this day when you could use something like “Blender” to plot basic 3d shapes in perspective very fast. Sometimes it feels like I want to master drawing to that Scott Robertson degree but I don't really need to. Like training for a marathon, I don’t need to be able to run a marathon but it would be great to know I can.
Personally, I had appreciated such a "boring" course with the kind of “correct” exercises, as a training program. Really plotting in the shadows on still-lifes for example.
It would also have been nice to have the opportunity to submit the exercise when doing the courses. "Domestics" has that system, it is quite rudimentary but still, a nice little extra motivation. You guys mention that people do not do the tasks, maybe would help?
Anyway, really appreciate your podcast and will sign up for an annual subscription with SVS next month (doing the free trial now) so I’m looking forward to learning a lot regardless.
To be honest, I probably mostly ask these questions to try to find a little extra motivation to do that type of “correct” basic exercises, I think as I said they are important, still difficult to get done, how important do you guys think they are? Or how important have they been to you?
Everyone learns differently, and the same technique might work for one illustrator and not for another. Will learned perspective when he realized it didn’t have to be super precise, and if it was close, it would still work. Will tried to teach that method to a student who just couldn’t get it.
A lot of artists cannot see anything in their mind’s eye when they try to visualize something. Others are more abstract. There are lots of different ways to learn perspective, find the one that works best for you and lean into that.
Our first four classes are just to teach people the absolute basics. They are essential for understanding the later courses. A lot of people can feel insecure or intimidated by perspective. It depends on what level you are at as an illustrator and how much you need to hone your skills before advancing.
HOW TO BALANCE KIDS AND YOUR STUDIO SPACE
From Debra:
What is your current art studio setup, and how does that compare to your studio/workplace as a student, and your studio as a beginning professional?
If you have thoughts on the following question, that would be awesome, but the previous question is the main one.
What do you suggest to help me keep tidy, organized, inspired, and consistent, when I am primarily a caregiver and will be interrupted by children and household concerns, and have only part of my bedroom to use as an artistic space. (I want art/illustration to be a part-time job at some point)
Before Jake had a full studio room, he would use the kitchen table. He would set it up and take it down each night after putting the kids to bed. It was frustrating because he had limited time and the setup ate into that. They moved into a house after and Jake took the smallest room as his studio. The setup has grown over the years, but he uses the same system throughout.
He has a digital side and a traditional side. He doesn’t want to be distracted by the computer when he is doing traditional work. The same goes for his digital space, which is dedicated to digital work exclusively. He keeps it back to back or side to side.
Jake uses the flat files to organize his art supplies. It has casters so you can roll it to your station when it’s time to work. Jake also uses a folding art board panel so that he doesn’t have to draw flat. It helps with back pain and neck pain and posture in general.
Will has just moved to a new house and is in a small shed-like room for his studio. His new home is smaller and is in a small resort community. He used to have his office in a small walk-in closet in his bedroom, and his son once broke in and ate some cadmium paint. Will is working exclusively digitally, and so his current setup is just his computer and his tablet. If you want to work digitally and don’t need to go to print, iPads are great and very compact. It’s the smallest device that can do the most digital stuff.
If you’re working professionally, having a keyboard and mouse along with your stylus saves a lot of time, and lets you switch fast.
The essential ingredient to a great home studio is to make it a place in which you can think and be alone in spirit. If you are able to isolate and avoid distractions, that is ideal. It takes some time to get into the flow state, so avoiding distractions is key.
Consider getting noise cancelling headphones if you can afford it and if you can afford to focus your attention. Also find ways to give yourself a few hours a day for creative work, do it every single day that you can, get in the zone, and don’t pressure yourself to make anything.
DRAWING THE SAME THING
From Kara:
I get bored very easily drawing the same thing over and over. I don't think I could manage to ever illustrate a whole children's book because of the repetition in characters and setting. Either how do I overcome this obstacle or what are my other options in illustration?
Lee would get bored too. It might just be the wrong story if the character and the setting are the same thing time after time. You could consider editorial illustration for magazines or news sites. You could do book covers. Just find the market for the work that you want to create.
Jake really identifies with this question because it was him for years and years. Comics scared Jake because of this. As you get better and mature in your work, it’s less creative energy to actually make something. You understand shortcuts and how things work, and a lot of your creative energy goes towards ideas rather than the actual process. You won’t have to worry about the granular stuff as much when you develop more as an artist. As you get further along in your work you also get less precious with what you do, and can throw work out with less concern. You just have to get through a lot of drawings in order to get comfortable and at that level.
LINKS
Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com. Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White: leewhiteillustration.com. Instagram: @leewhiteillo
Daniel Tu: danieltu.co.
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