BY ALAN MALE
ava | Academic Published 2007
Colour images 200
ISBN 2-940373-51-5
978-2-940373-51-2
£24.95
Review by Esther Dudley
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The last book review I did at the request of the Association of Illustrators, publishers of Varoom, I admitted that I couldn’t see who could possibly need a copy of that work (Paul Slater’s Fried Eggs In Brine), but that everyone should have it. This book however is quite a different proposition: I can see exactly who needs it and hardly anyone else would benefit from it to anything like the same extent. The author specifies in the preface, that it is aimed at final year undergraduate and post-graduate students. I reckon that it will be a godsend to all students and many new practitioners of illustration.In my experience as theoretical and contextual tutor I suspect that the words’ theory’ and ‘context’ do not necessarily get the juices running in my student audience. After all, much more fun is to be had ‘doing’ in the studio. Yet Alan Male’s great achievement in this book is to make theory and context so essential to the practising illustrator and he goes to great lengths to explain how and why. The word that elicits a glazed expression, in my experience is ‘methodologies’ but here the process of developing a methodology is clearly explained in text and image, with stills from Susan Boafo’s video production in which the scientific formula for photosynthesis is spelt out by aquatic algae moving through stencilled letters. Contrasting with this, on the double page spread, is a drawing by Elvind Bøvor, demonstrating just how diverse illustration is and upholding the principle faculty of illustration, which is drawing. The diversity and contrasts throughout the book add to its fascination. The section on Medical Illustration gives way to Technological Subjects, the Illustrator as Scientist and Cultural Historian, Editorial Illustration, Political and Current Affairs and onwards to the jaunty Lifestyle: Reviews and Bric a brac. I have often been struck by the breadth of knowledge that professional illustrators seem to have and this book certainly points the way towards the need to keep an active curiosity in the world and its doings. As stated by Male:
The pursuit of knowledge and information is a prerequisite to eminent, professional illustration practice.
The format is such that the book can be enjoyed at different levels: firstly we can flick through it as a picture book, delighting in the diversity of work presented here. Secondly we can hop from one quotation to the next, getting a synopsis of each section as we go – one I particularly like being:
The best art and design education encourages the acquisition of appropriate skills that are not only practical, but intellectual and knowledge based: the command of written and oral language, presentation and research.
This echoes my own thoughts as expressed in Becoming Designers and, no doubt, the utterances of design research/contextual studies tutors throughout art faculties everywhere.
Thirdly, we can dip into the text for the nuts and bolts approach to each of the sections within the four chapters, which are Education, The Nature of Imagery, The Role of Illustration and finally the very thorough appendix giving advice on professional practice.
The cover sets the style of the whole book, (of course it does, this is what illustrators do!) with Alan Male’s own illustration ‘Insect Body Parts’ which appears on the front cover with a systematic labelling of the book’s parts in place of the insect’s. This is the work of a Natural Science Illustrator. This book is so schematic that it starts with ‘how to get the most out of this book’ and a diagrammatic description of how the pages are composed, effectively dissecting the book and giving a great example of how this one works in terms of relationship of text to image.
With meticulous attention to detail Male dissects the sections, even down to a dissection of the term ‘research’, in which he defines the difference between research, the gathering of reference materials for the production of imagery, and Research, the academic discipline that allows illustration to become intrinsic in furthering the understanding of any given field of enquiry, beautifully exemplified here by four stages of imagery: from a photograph of a fossil of a “hitherto unknown prehistoric organism” to the author’s “original and first image ever produced of Keurbosia, an enigmatic marine invertebrate from 500 million years ago”. The illustrator has put flesh on the bones to recreate this long gone creature, and the research evidence shows how instructive this is – no flight of prehistoric fancy.
Alan Male is clearly influential in illustration, twice being a recipient of the “Focus on Nature” Purchase Prize; writing regularly for the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators and he is a member of the Society of Illustrators, New York. He has exhibited in London, Arizona, Denver and has work in the permanent collection of New York State Museum. There are signs of this book being intended for the US market: one that grates is the use of the unattractive word ‘reps’ for agents in the instructive appendix, covering professional practice issues. Described as an authority on professional practice, he gives very sound advice to prospective illustrators on all aspects of portfolio presentation to charging for work, even including guidelines for illustration pricing, presumably based on 2007 figures, which could remain typical for some time to come.
Being such an authoritative book there is a tendency to dryness in the text and it is not a book to speed-read. Careful reading of the text will reveal its importance for anyone looking for the fuller picture of what illustration is about. Threads of humour weave through text and image: Arthur de Borman’s ‘pognophobia’ illustration is an extraordinary example of visual intelligence, combining humour with a clearly defined visual language.
Extraordinarily skilled work is shown throughout and this is a rich showcase for the current state of illustration and, being quite dependent on the work of students and staff on the Falmouth course run by Male, a good showcase for them as well. There is a strong emphasis on the relationship of text and image, particularly text created by the illustrator, which reminds us of Falmouth’s successful MA in authorial illustration.
Writing and illustration are more than just contiguous, they are one and the same.
Alan Male is well placed to know what students of illustration need and to develop information to help them work towards the practice of illustration. This book reads as an accumulation of his teaching and professional illustrating experience.
In the section on answering the brief he asks
“How does one best acquire knowledge of subject matter? The key to this question is fairly simple: engage in research, have an enquiring mind and possess a general desire for learning”
If your subject is Illustration then take note of his advice (though its broader application is obvious) and do yourself a big favour by reading this book.