Illustration Definition
Illustration is a broad term that can be described differently by every person that you may ask. Based on Google's Dictionary, illustration is described as either a picture or a drawing of a specific item or it is a demonstration of an action where you show people how to carry out a specific task. This can be considered as the general meaning of the word as dictionaries tend to not go in-depth about it's meaning and what really differentiates it.
However, if you were to look up about the meaning of Illustration through the lens of a graphic designer, they'll be able to give you a more in-depth definition. For an example, (Paul, 2017) states that illustration is mostly about creative interpretation. It can be many things ranging from visual explanation of a text, interpretation of a text even to decoration of a text. At the same time, it can be a process or a concept.
Overall, illustration can be described as an interpretation of a text into a painting or a drawing that carries some form of message or emotions to be sent to its viewers. (Sandu, n.d.)
Difference between Illustration and Fine Art
What is fine art? Fine art is defined as an art form where the artist generally value the aesthetic aspect and beauty in a drawing rather than its functional value. Some example of fine art includes charcoal drawings, sculptures, calligraphy and chalk drawing. Based on the examples, it is clear that these type of drawings rarely serve any functionality other than looking "pretty" and pleasing to the viewers eyes.
Whereas illustration's main purpose as I stated early is to interpret text and visualise it to send a message to the viewers. Now that the definition between the two of these art forms are stated next to each other, the difference between the two is quiet clear. However there are still some differences between the two that needs to be explored.
In terms of job prospects, the difference between these two are the purpose of creating said art and the target audience. Illustrators are usually creating art for their clients and visualising it into how their clients wants it to look like while fine art artists are usually independent workers who create art more for their own purpose. Generally, once their art is completed, some fine art artists usually would hold their own art gallery and from there, they are able to sell their art pieces to others and basically how they generate income.
While that is the norm, there are still some fine art artists who does commissions for others- as seen in the past when Renaissance Artists would be commissioned to create sculptures and paintings of people in power. However most fine art artists nowadays mainly create art for themselves and leans more towards the idea of self concept- rather than having to stick to a specific needs from others.
In conclusion, both fine art and illustration are different from each other from its general concept to its job prospect.
Unconventional Media Workshop
Moving on, for this week's class assignment we were given various types of materials such as cloths, paper bag and unused books. From the materials, we had to create something that relates bag to our main brief- which is creating a map.
From the materials given, I used a paper bag, and two types of cloths. One is a thick cloth with a raincoat material and the other is a a very thin cloth with stripes. I chose to create a popcorn bag sort of thing because for my map brief, my general idea of it is Mundane/ Unconventional Joy. Basically where I compile stuff that seemingly bring us very little joy but once compiled, we can see how much those gestures mean to each and every one of us. Thus, the Bag of Mundane Joy is created.
Creating this Bag wasn't so challenging but it wasn't that easy too. I mainly had problems of pasting the cloth onto the paper bag since my tape wasn't as strong as I wanted it to be so I had to use a lot of tape pasting it together. But other than that, cutting the words together was quite a breeze other than creating holes for the letters.
Personally to me, I find this assignment pretty fun as we explored unconventional media rather than sticking to the regular pen and pencil and drawing on a paper. Overall, I liked the outcome of my creation since I think popcorn those relate to Mundane Joy since buying popcorn to watch a movie really puts you in the mood of watching a movie. Thus, unconditionally cheering you up.
Reference:
Sandu, B. Illustration styles: definition and examples of this art. Retrieved from https://www.designyourway.net/blog/graphic-design/illustration-styles/
Paul, D. (2017). Difference Between Graphic Design And Illustration. Retrieved from https://www.designhill.com/design-blog/difference-between-graphic-design-and-illustration/
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