Research and Development

Though Visual Practice a deeper understanding of the subject can be gained.  Visual Practice goes on all the time, whenever we watch TV, read a magazine, use the internet or walking into town, the world is so full of examples of Graphics, Illustration and Photography that you can’t go anywhere or do anything without observing some sort of inspiration that will develop your ideas and way of thinking about your subject, be it Graphics, Illustration or Photography.  But the collection, study and exploration of a subject can majorly improve your understanding.  Inspiration can come from anywhere and by collecting and studying a vast array of materials and work will mean you have a broader range to draw upon.  By studying and exploring ideas that inspire you, you can develop your own work with new ideas and skills. 

Visual research can also be linked to the application and evaluation of drawing and experimentation, an illustrator should always be experimenting to develop new skills and ideas and to help the development of a ‘personal’ Visual Vocabulary.  You should analysis your own work just as much if not more than the work you look at for inspiration.  By experimenting you can create hundreds of ideas that you can look back on and draw inspiration from to create or develop an idea later on in your career.  The Illustrator Jill Calder is a good example of an illustrator who creates tonnes of sketch books full of seemingly random ideas that can later be developed into a final piece of work.  Jotting down ideas on anything you have will not only help in allowing you to never forget anything but also creates some new effects that you would find out otherwise. 

“I fill notebook after notebook after notebook because I feel sick when I forget potentially good ideas, I take photographs, I draw, I scan, I Photoshop.”

Paul Davis

I have collected loads of sketchbooks from A level, Foundation and University with all my thought processes and experimentation and inspiration from past projects that I can go back to and look at to get inspiration or develop my current ideas on a project that I may be doing, there is usually always something that can push forward my work or start it off in a new direction.  I have scrap books of random things that have been of interesting to me that I can look back and pick up ideas from. 

Anything and everything can inspire you to create something new, to develop your understanding of your practice, and enhance your visual vocabulary.