Introductory comments

Research point 1.3: Visual diary

You may have already developed ways of recording and reflecting on your own visual language and the work of others through sketchbooks, blogs or scrapbooks in which you've collected examples of illustrations and other visual information that catches your eye, or which you might want to refer back to at a later date.
 If you haven't already done so, start a visual diary and get into the habit of collecting visual material that might be useful as reference material or act as a stimulus for your visual thinking. A visual diary doesn't have to be paper-based; it could be a wall in your studio on which you pin postcards and examples of work to help inform your own practice. Blogs work well as visual diaries because if s easy to link to a wide range of material on the internet and it allows you the opportunity to share your diary and look at other people's at the same time.
If you've already got a visual diary, then spend some time collecting new material and reference points for it. Reflect on your choices. Are there common threads emerging? For example, are you drawn to particular visual cultures, contexts or styles? What do you think this says about who you are as a developing illustrator?

VISUAL DIARY

As a response to this research point and as an on-going resource I have set up this visual diary blog:

My next post relates to how designers can successfully integrate text with their illustrations. This may involve using: the same drawing tool to create both hand-rendered lettering and illustration; using part of the image as a template to position text; using the same style of design for both text and image; using illustration and lettering style which is ‘of the period’; and, using a common colour scheme, for example.

I anticipate this visual diary to be a very useful resource not only for the duration of ‘illustration 2’ but for further units within the Visual Communication degree course.