Continuing the ongoing series of interviews with illustrators, today I’m pleased to welcome Natalie Smith on my blog. Natalie’s portfolio is a charming collection with particular emphasis on delightfully quirky character illustration. She also designs T-shirts, and selected illustrations are available for sale over at Society6. Natalie’s Dribbble page, DeviantART gallery and Tumblr stream are full of sketches and work-in-progress snippets that provide a fascinating glimpse into her creative flow.
Kirill: Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started in the field.
Natalie: I am a self-taught, freelance illustrator born and based in Yorkshire, England. Although I’ve always enjoyed drawing, I kind of fell into illustration a few years ago after winning a couple of t-shirt design competitions and through people taking notice of my personal work on Web sites such as DeviantART and Dribbble.
Kirill: Is it important to evolve your stylistic choices? Is there ever a thought of exploring radically different directions? Is there a concern of falling into a certain rigidity of style?
Natalie: I’m not sure if it’s about evolving my stylistic choices per se, but I do think it’s important to experiment and try out new ways of approaching an illustration in order to progress. In fact, it’s more a case of “what can I do to make my work better”? For me it doesn’t even have to be anything too drastic either; it could be something as simple as using a different brush in Photoshop, for example.
As for style, I think it’s ultimately just an amalgamation of what interests you at a given time. As you go through life these interests naturally change and evolve and with it so does your style.
Kirill: From pencil sketches, to the initial transfer to the digital mode, to circling on finer details – what’s your favorite phase?
Natalie: It really depends on the project but generally speaking sketching is my favourite, as that’s the most creative phase of the process and the part where you still have the freedom to do anything. Then it would probably be adding the finer details.
The most tedious part of my process, due to how I work and produce my illustrations, would be laying out the paths and the base colours for my piece.
Kirill: When you transfer your pencil sketches to the digital world, do you try to preserve some amount of hand-drawn imperfection? Is this important to you?
Natalie: I actually do a lot of sketching straight in to Photoshop these days, but when I do use my sketchbook it’s nearly always to put down and explore ideas, crank out thumbnails and try out different compositions and layouts. So my pencil sketches are really just a foundation to build upon rather than a piece of the finished illustration. Sometimes I will do individual bits of the illustration and then piece them together once I’m on my computer.
That being said, I have been trying to incorporate more of a “roughness” to my work, which I think adds a little more character. For this reason I also tend to create a lot of textures, which I use in my work, from traditional sources such as different types of paper and scanning in brush marks.
Above all though, it really depends on what is needed and what will best help communicate the message of the illustration.
Kirill: What do you like about character design and why?
Natalie: I’m not sure exactly what it is, but the first thing I really remember properly sitting down and drawing lots of were the characters from The Simpsons – so I think it’s just something I’ve always been interested in.
Kirill: What’s different about designing t-shirts? Which parts translate well to the wearable medium, and which do not?
Natalie: The biggest thing you have to remember is that a design someone may hang on their wall isn’t necessarily what they would want to wear! But the way I approach designing a t-shirt is largely similar to how I would tackle other illustrative work; composition, colour etc are just as important.
However, there are certain things I do take into consideration when specifically creating a design for t-shirts. For example, where the design is placed on the t-shirt is important – either to give the design more impact or to avoid it from being unflattering. From my own experience, I also tend to find that simpler designs tend to do better (though this may not be the case for others).
Kirill: Do you think that advances in software tools and global connectivity are making it simpler to start in your field, and at the same time creating more competition and diversity for the clients to choose from? Does it make harder to stand out?
Natalie: Not so much advances in software, as I believe it will only take you so far, but definitely having access to sites like Dribbble, which broadcast your work on a global scale, has made it easier for me to get started in the field. At the same time I do think it creates more competition, but I believe that if you have the passion to progress and the talent then you will always, in the end, stand out.
As a side note on this subject, because I’m self-taught the ease at which you can now have access to other artist’s work and be able to communicate with them and learn from them has been a huge boon for me.
Kirill: How valuable is self-initiated work for you?
Natalie: Extremely! First of all, it’s a time when you can really play around and experiment with your illustrations. It also creates a consistent output and allows you to refine your process and become more efficient at what you do.
Kirill: What’s the best thing about being an illustrator?
Natalie: The variety of the work and having a great excuse to watch cartoons (it’s for research purposes, obviously).
And here I’d like to thank Natalie Smith for answering a few questions I had about her art and craft. You can find Natalie online at her portfolio and buy selected prints in her shop. She can also be found at Dribbble, DeviantART, Tumblr and Twitter.
I’ve talked about item details pages in the Play Store before. It’s a very interesting content hierarchy, with blocks that vary by their internal complexity and the overall logical importance.
Some blocks are more important than others. For example, the item cover and (in this case) the movie trailer are very visual, and we want to put them above the fold. There’s the item name, and some additional secondary info (such as movie genre, ratings, release date or running time) that “deserve” to be above the fold. There’s a certain logical hierarchy to that information that needs to be consistently exposed on the screen no matter what the device configuration is – some blocks “belong” together, no matter if it’s a single-column or a double-column layout.
And then there are action buttons. The buttons that keep us in business. We want them to be immediately identifiable, and – as much as we can – always there no matter how far you scroll the content.
Our previous solution for the buttons was twofold. Visually, the buttons are using a light blue color that sets them apart from all the other elements on the screen (apart from the rather awkward rating stars). Then, as you scroll the left column, we have the scroll-to-snap thingie where the buttons actually snap to the top edge of the viewport and stay there as you keep on scrolling that column.
As we started working on redesigning the main streams, it became quite clear that we need to redesign the details pages as well. Removing the heavy dark grey boxes and pinstripe textures was kind of a given, but that left us with the question of how to create a lighter, flatter look while still maintaining the same logical hierarchy of content. What you see in the latest Play Store release is the first lightweight iteration of where we’re heading.
The summary section has been redesigned to be more consistent across all device configurations. The title is more prominent, and the action buttons have moved to the right edge of the screen. The global rating stars and count have moved into what we call the byline section, going back to a consistent layout across the devices as well. And now, the space vacated by the action buttons and the stars in the left column can be given back to display larger, more visceral cover art. This is particularly relevant for “traditional” media that encodes additional information in the cover art – information that is lost if you start downscaling it by too much.
Going beyond the summary section, we’ve “lost” quite a few visual elements that helped separating the sections. No more colored headers, no more fancy textured footers. We’re going for a simpler, flatter look that uses typography and thin separators. Losing all this color has a nice side effect of making the action buttons maintain their visual importance. We removed the blue color that helped them stand out. But not having too many elements that use the same main color makes them stand out in the new design.
Finally, one of my favorite pieces is how the new design keeps the nice alignment of content above the fold. If you trace the bottom edge of the dark gray box in the left column and the bottom edge of the trailer in the right column, you’ll see that they align perfectly. This helps delineating the blocks that we consider to have more logical importance. The same delineation is maintained in the new design as well. Note how we’re able to move more information into the “main” section while still displaying larger cover art. Also, note how the visual alignment works across the bottom edge of the trailer and the bottom edge of the white area in the left column – not its drop shadow.
The EdgeEffect class provides a standard way to draw overscroll effects at the edges of scrollable containers. The EdgeEffectCompat class from the support library wraps it so that it can be used across multiple platform versions in a backwards compatible way. I’ve had my eye on this particular class for a while, and I finally got a chance to use it when we were working on improving the accessibility support for the video/screenshot gallery section on app details pages.
For a number of design requirements we have implemented our own custom scrolling component for the section that displays the application screenshots and the optional video trailer. The downside of doing custom scrolling handling is that you have to take over pretty much everything, including accessibility. This has been the last major piece that was lacking proper support in that area, and the latest Play Store release has finally closed that gap. And while we were in that section, I also fixed the missing overscroll indication.
- You get proper overscroll effects for “free” when you’re using the core views, such as ScrollView or ViewPager. And if you’re doing a custom scrolling implementation, EdgeEffectCompat is your friend. Here’s what you need to do in order to do it properly:
- For every edge that should show overscroll, define its own EdgeEffectCompat object.
- Call setWillNotDraw(false) on your container.
- For MotionEffect.ACTION_MOVE, call EdgeEffectCompat.onPull() when you detect overscroll at the matching edge. If that method returns true on at least one object, call invalidate() on your container.
- For MotionEffect.ACTION_UP and MotionEffect.ACTION_CANCEL, call EdgeEffectCompat.onRelease(). If that method returns true on at least one object, call invalidate() on your container.
- Override draw() method, and after calling super.draw() go over all EdgeEffectCompat objects. For each one that returns false from its isFinished(), apply the matching chain of transformations (rotate, translate), call EdgeEffectCompat.setSize() and EdgeEffectCompat.draw(). If at least one draw() method returns true, call invalidate() on your container as the last line of your draw() method.
There’s the usual hand-waving involved here, and the source of ViewPager provides a complete example of doing custom overscroll draws. The two more complicated points are about updating the objects only during dragging, and about applying the correct sequence of transformations depending on which edge you’re drawing.
Continuing the ongoing series of interviews with illustrators, today I’m pleased to welcome Owen Davey on my blog. Owen is a prolific illustrator whose work spans editorial print illustration, animation, book cover art, branding and more. And if that is not enough, later this year we’re going to see his third published book, “Laika the Astronaut” (which is already available for pre-order).
Kirill: Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started in the field.
Owen: I’ve been working as a Freelance Illustrator for about 4 years, since graduating from University College Falmouth with a First Class BA(Hons) in Illustration. My first professional commission was for the Guardian Weekend, a week before I graduated. An ex student of Falmouth was an art director for them and liked my work, so thought he’d give me a chance. Since then, it’s just snowballed really. I’ve now worked with a range of clients across the globe including Orange, Microsoft, Persil, New York Times, Templar Publishing, Walker Books, Creative Review, Jamie Oliver & Threadless.
Kirill: Your style is rooted in the mid-century period. What attracts you there, and what are your thoughts on bringing that almost analogue look back to life with the modern digital tools at your disposal?
Owen: I discovered a while ago, that my work thrives under constraints. Limiting colour palettes or applying strict compositions just seems to make my work better. That’s what I love about mid-century design. The creativity and strength of design many illustrators managed to accomplish, within the limitations of technology, just inspires me. It is certainly my golden age for design.
In terms of the analogue and digital, that’s something I struggle with constantly in my work. I love the imperfections of image-making, and the evidence of human touch, and yet I also love clean, slick and precise imagery too. I always start with drawing, work digitally, and end with textures and manufactured imperfections; that way I sort of try and get the best of both worlds. I think I’ll just always be sitting on the fence though really.
Left – illustration for “The Feed” project for Orange. Right – illustration for an article about eReader devices.
Kirill: Do you want people to recognize your work the first time they see your new illustrations? Is there a concern of falling into a certain rigidity of style?
Owen: I’d like illustrators and designers to recognize my work, yeah. I discovered a long time ago, that the general public just doesn’t have the eye for it. Family & friends always tell me when they see something they think is mine, when it looks nothing alike. I don’t mind though; it’s my job to know the difference. I never fear falling into a rigidity of style, because I’m never 100 per cent happy with any of the work I do. I’m constantly evolving my work in an attempt to improve and hone. If you look through my blog for example, there’s quite a distinct change from the beginning to the most recent. I live in a world of illustrative evolution.
Kirill: What do you think about making illustrations for web sites? How does the evolution of responsive web design and scaling the design with device size affects that?
Owen: It doesn’t bother me at all really. It’s lovely to see work in the physical world, but I love computers. They are incredibly enabling objects. I’d have sucked at living in any other era. I just love the internet too much. And the joy of work existing in the digital ether, is that you can be 100 per cent sure how the colours are going to look on your screen. Reproduction can be a nightmare!
Just to clarify though, I’m a great lover of objects of art. My bookshelf is my pride & joy. But what everybody has to understand, is that we are now living in an age, when you should only print something if it’s worth it. You either make beautifully crafted objects, or you just do it digitally. The age of the crappy plastic CD has died out but stunning Gatefold Vinyl lives on. eBooks pick up the trashy novel, while art books are printed with spot colour matt stock perfection.
Various branding materials for the Alone Aboard the Ark project.
Kirill: What does it take to create a complete branding for a new music album (“Alone Aboard the Ark”), from album sleeves to booklets to t-shirts to beer labels, all the while maintaining a unified theme across the different physical characteristics? How long did that process take, and what was the most unexpected thing that happened there?
Owen: Well the surprising thing with it, was how long it trailed on for. I completed the cover artwork before Christmas, and I’m still doing little bits and pieces for it here and there. I approached the merchandising etc. in a very self referential way really. I tried to reuse elements as much as I could, simplifying and rearranging, colour picking, dragging and dropping etc etc. It was great fun to do. Each design takes on a slightly new life, and you really get to explore an image and a theme. I hope to do it more.
Kirill: You also did the jacket design for “Wild Boy” novel. How is that field adapting to the world of digital book stores, and what effect are those scaled-down interfaces having on the process of designing book covers?
Owen: Um. I don’t really know. I don’t see much difference in designing for the digital and physical to be honest. They’re both viewed in similar ways. If it’s eye catching online, it should be eye-catching in store.
Kirill: And if we’re talking about books, you are working on your third picture book, “Laika the Astronaut” – due out later this year. How’s the world of physical publishing treating you? Which parts of the long process of publishing a book work well for you, and which parts are still rooted in the pre-digital world?
Owen: Nope. Not working on it. It’s been done for several months. Just takes ages for it to be released. Um.
Well I love picture books. The longer printing side etc. is slightly infuriating, but the creation of them is great fun. I’m used to working to tight deadlines and single images most of the time, so to be able to approach a 32 page picture book over the space of a few months is really refreshing. You get to develop ideas in such exciting ways. You can add extra concepts or fun elements, properly explore pace and flow, hone storytelling, and refine composition. Love it. And Templar are particularly good at letting me choose papers and fonts etc, so that the finished object is one I can be really proud of. I can’t wait to see Laika in the flesh!
One of the illustrations for Laika the Astronaut picture book.
Kirill: Going back to the client work, do you prefer getting a full artistic freedom for a project, or a more defined direction from the client?
Owen: It depends really. The main issues stem from a client not being sure about which they want. If they tell you you have artistic freedom and then essentially steer you to where they originally wanted you, that’s pretty annoying. But in general I’m game for both. I do like to have some input in the conceptual process, even if they give me a strong theme or specific subject matter. I don’t really love being a human paintbrush (but then sometimes that’s where the best money is)
Kirill: Does it ever happen that a client contacts you based on your existing work, but then starts pushing you into a direction you’re not comfortable with?
Owen: Not exactly. I quite like exploring outside my comfort zone, so its fun when they get me to do stuff slightly different. I’ve had clients with just simple bad taste, asking me to add horrific colours or making bad edits to images after I’ve created them etc. That’s annoying, but I dunno. I’m fairly easy going with it all. If I was too precious with my work, I’d have been a Fine Artist, or gallery illustrator. When people commission me, they have to get what they want; otherwise I’m failing at my job.
Animation still from the Wisdomap Schools project.
Kirill: How valuable is self-initiated work for you?
Owen: It’s not valuable per se. It’s just fun. There’s a massive back catalogue of work I want to get done, but I often try and slip it into commissioned work, or books. I don’t usually class my picture books as self-initiated, because there’s still a client, but I suppose it fulfills the same purpose for me; it’s a way of cutting loose and exploring my own ideas.
Kirill: And on a related note, do you ever get to take a break as a free-lance illustrator?
Owen: Nope. It’s all I think about most of the time. I do other creative things, and live my life, but it all leads back into illustration in the end. I take time off, but I usually illustrate in it anyway. My last 3 holidays have all had mini commissions happening throughout them, but they paid for the holidays, so yay to me!
Kirill: What’s the best thing about being an illustrator?
Owen: Being paid to do what I love.
Animation still from the Wisdomap Medicine project.
And here I’d like to thank Owen Davey for taking time to answer my questions. You can find Owen online on his site, his blog and Twitter. Selected prints are available for sale over at Big Cartel.
