First, what is illustration?

In our daily life, people often need to express their ideas to each other or tell others what you think. At this time, in addition to using "language" or "words" to express, there is another way: "pictures".

Pure "painting" is to express your feelings in the picture with the style and skills of painting. We often see such works everywhere. As for "illustration", to put it simply, the pictures we usually read in newspapers, magazines, various publications or children's picture books are called "illustrations".

Illustration, in Latin, means "light up". Reading words and thinking about meaning were originally used to increase the interest given by words in publications and make the words more vivid and vivid in readers' minds. In today's various publications, the importance of illustrations has far exceeded the foil position of "luminous words". It can not only highlight the theme, but also enhance artistic appeal.

In my opinion, illustration is the most important visual experience in our ignorance period. The romance of the Three Kingdoms on the villain's bookstall and the exquisite illustrations of Huang Rong in Jin Yong's novels hidden under the desk are indelible memories.

When we read Jimmy's picture book, the illustration is one of the pictures. Through one picture after another, the plot of the whole story can be connected in series. Even illiterate children can guess what the story is about by telling the story by looking at the pictures.

Illustration is the background image when we watch TV reports on the weather, and it is a form of intuitively explaining the weather changes.

Illustrations in newspaper supplements, we often see some interesting images, which are more attractive than articles.

Illustrations are all kinds of scenes and characters displayed in the game.

Illustrations are line drawings on best-selling CDs.

The example is

Second, illustration vision.

The development of illustration art can be said to have a long history. In your eyes and mine, ordinary and simple illustrations have great connotations. Maybe you think I'm exaggerating. Let me give you some examples:

Murals and stone carvings: In ancient times, humans knew how to use the form of "painting" to make each other understand and express with images such as lines and colors. According to the research of archaeologists, the earliest human painting was a cave painting in Lascaux, southern France, about 20,000 years ago. This is the earliest painting of modern human beings. This cave mural may be the oldest illustration in the world in terms of the meaning of conveying information.

Ukiyo-e painting in Japan: Ukiyo-e painting is a kind of folk print that rose in the Edo period in Japan. Although it had a high artistic style, it was widely circulated overseas from the end of Edo to the Meiji period (1the second half of the 9th century) because the Japanese at that time ignored it as a leaflet or poster. Impressionist painters such as Monet, Van Gogh and Rehnova were all influenced by Japanese Ukiyo-e painting. Van Gogh's personal collection contains a large number of Japanese ukiyo-e paintings. Van Gogh's Blue Sky and Golden Sunflower can be said to be based on Japanese ukiyo-e painting.

The charm of ukiyo-e painting lies in its high artistic value, and because it was a popular painting at that time, the themes were mostly taken from people's living habits and daily scenes, and with unique colors and creativity, each painting had a distinct Japanese national style and also reflected the Japanese cultural background at that time.

Feng Zikai's Painting Collection: Mr. Feng Zikai, who was once commented as "the artist most like an artist in China", has shocked the hearts of millions of readers with his peculiar artistic charm since he wrote "Feng Zikai Comics" in the 1930' s. Mr. Kai Zi studied in Japan and was keen on ukiyo-e painting, from which he learned a lot of painting techniques. His cartoons are good at photographing the world, especially children's subjects, mostly with Feng brothers and sisters. There are also many paintings with the artistic conception of ancient poetry, so that readers can get the connotation of classical literature while looking at the paintings. Zhu Ziqing once called it "a poem with a core", while Yu Pingbo thought that "Kai Zi Comics" was like "a fragment falling in love with the world".

At that time, Mr. Feng Zikai published his poetic illustrations in well-known publications (such as Literature Weekly), and his performance was the first in illustration art in China. The most famous one is the work of nursing students, which he painted for Master Hongyi. Now, although more than 70 years have passed, you can still buy Nurse and Mr. Feng Zikai's prose in bookstores of all sizes. The spirit of Mr. Feng Zikai, like his paintings, can be described as "everlasting".

After the liberation of illustrations, the layout of blackboard newspapers, printed materials and posters has developed, and after the 1980 s, international popular styles were used for reference. In the middle and late 1990s, with the popularization of computer technology, more and more cutting-edge authors used computers for illustration design, so that most of the illustrations in domestic popular magazines were digital products.

Ordinary, Shu Fen: A couple who came together because of illustration finally embarked on the only road in life, and also found their own life goals and passions because of illustration. Together, they have created countless well-known illustrations, and even joked on the Internet that their illustration combination is "flat pink autumn colors". The atmosphere, picture composition, light and shadow, and painting skills created in ordinary works make people have to admire his seriousness in his works, his management of every small detail of the picture, and his enthusiasm and efforts in painting. Just like his name: "ordinary", what he pursues is not fame and fortune, applause and attention, but the continuous improvement of his works, which is not influenced by the judgment of the outside world (peers and readers) and any gossip, but only the enthusiasm and efforts for his painting. Another drew a poster for the famous Japanese cartoonist Chai Menwen's cartoon "Love Story in Tokyo", and the name "Chen Shufen" began to attract attention in the animation industry in Taiwan Province Province. Later, the publication of New Cohabitation Era and Fengxiang Wan Li pushed her popularity to another peak.

In Japan, Taiwan Province, Hongkong and even China, ordinary illustration and Shu Fen illustration represent a high level and are also typical oriental illustration arts. Under their influence, more and more young people use computers as tools to create illustrations and explore their own sky.

Jimmy's picture book: "Sometimes/I like reading/time/second, second, second, second, second, second, second, second, second, second, second, second, second, second, second, second, second, second, second, second, I don't care, I can't do anything.

Faced with such words, I can't say all kinds of "philosophical" meaningless words. New Year's Day in 2002, I don't know if it is a coincidence. Liaoning Education Publishing House and Sanlian Bookstore launched Jimmy's works almost at the same time. On the mainland, a storm of about a few meters began. Now, from pocket books and notebooks to mobile phones, T-shirts and even movies, Jimmy's works are everywhere, and Jimmy has become the most fashionable topic for young white-collar workers. Every fashion has its reasons, and Jimmy's works are no exception. Some elements of it have been deeply embedded in our lives as popular reasons. Many readers expressed their feelings about Jimmy's picture books. As far as picture books are concerned, pictures are illustrations. I feel that Jimmy is telling stories with illustrations, telling you touching stories one by one.

Benjamin Illustrator: The representative of the original illustrator in China, whose works and styles have been well received by the industry, called him "cutting-edge". Benjamin is a big boy, born as a fashion designer. Later, he gave up his position as a high-paying advertising company and devoted himself to comic creation. He has published related comic works in comic magazines all over the country. His works combine computer technology and comic skills, and have a strong appeal. There are many emotions hidden in Benjamin's paintings. Wandering in black and white colors and intricate lines. His works are good at using the atmosphere of color to express emotions, but they are not ambiguous in detail description. This kind of expression technique of coarse and fine is rare among the younger generation of painters in China. He often writes some comments and criticisms about his life and illustration art, and his writing is sharp and gorgeous, which complements his paintings.

Third, illustration skills.

Whether it is traditional brush or computer drawing, illustration drawing is a relatively independent creative process with strong personal feelings. There are many jobs related to illustrations, such as children's work, clothing work, book work, newspaper supplement work, advertising work and computer games work. Different kinds of works need different kinds of illustrators, and their styles and skills are also different. Even if it is a professional magazine illustration, the style that each publishing house likes is not necessarily the same. Therefore, illustration is becoming more and more commercialized, demanding higher and higher, and moving towards a professional level. It's never the same as before, maybe just to express a moment's thoughts.

When drawing illustrations, it is best to practice basic skills, such as sketching and sketching. Sketch is to train the understanding of light and shadow and composition.

Sketch, on the other hand, is to train memory, draw images and feelings quickly in a simple style, and make hands and brains more flexible. Then you can try to draw with different pigments, such as watercolor, oil painting, colored pencil, pastel and so on. And find a painting method that suits you.

Of course, you can also use computer drawing now, such as Illustrator, photoshop, painter and other drawing software. Simply put, Illustrator is vector drawing software, photoshop is dot matrix, and painter can imitate hand-drawn brushstrokes.

The creative expression of illustration can be concrete or abstract, and the creative freedom is extremely high. When photography cannot capture the physical image, it is the best time to use illustration as an expression. Illustrations can be divided into book illustrations, advertising illustrations and scientific illustrations according to their uses.

The following two illustrations are the entries that the author participated in the "Corner of the City" Proposition Illustration Design Competition. The software used is Photoshop and Painter. Please browse the "photo studio" column of our website for enlarged pictures.

Postscript: Looking through fashion magazines and popular publications, what appears in front of us are more illustrations with flamboyant personality and rich foreign flavor, so I really want to write about the art of illustration and also want to write about local illustrators.

The examples in this paper are just the tip of the iceberg of many illustrators, and they are also listed in the order in which the illustrators who left an impression in the author's mind appeared. They are definitely examples. After reading their illustrations, I don't think they are just ordinary entertainment in my mood. Apply what you have learned. The next time readers see a page with illustration style in other magazines, they will think it is an illustration, and it is a creation to express some ideas, thus realizing the author's hope when writing this article.

Furthermore, if we can read their illustrations like the authors, we will not only know the truth behind the scenes, but also be willing to put their painting style and purpose together with similar painters or works to understand and ponder, such as Cai Zhizhong and contemporary Zhu Deyong, Jimmy and McDull, Thomas Aawick and Jeffrey Alvemary. Then, you have learned a new art, that is "illustration".

The picture shows _ Fei Xi _ painting illustration.

Which online course of illustration is more reliable than the platform of online course of drawing?

Yang Ke 1. com:

Yang Ke. Com is a free online learning website for painting, which contains various painting learning tutorials. Each video tutorial is about 5 minutes, which is specially aimed at the small partners who teach themselves to paint. If you study painting in your spare time, you can learn a really free painting course in Yang Ke. com。

2, light class:

Light class is a professional online painting learning platform in China. There are all kinds of learning resources, such as hand-drawn illustrations, animated cartoons, Japanese thick paintings, original game paintings, antique illustrations, comic creation, comic split-mirror and so on. There are also a lot of painting materials for free use, which can solve many needs in one stop!

3, easy to draw a partner:

Easy Painting Companion is a 3D modeling and drawing assistant software specially developed for the pain points encountered by art practitioners, art students and painting lovers in their work and study. It centers on a 3D virtual model that can be rotated and manipulated freely, and is equipped with a series of common painting functions.

4. Hand-painted:

Black and white style, simple and easy to use, focused on brain holes, interesting graffiti community. You can automatically generate video and view playback during painting. There are free open classes to learn, and the platform also supports a series of functions that are particularly practical in painting, such as angle adjustment and simulation of light and shadow overlap.

5. Art Association:

This is a software and service platform for learning digital painting, which mainly promotes animation illustration, original painting design, two-dimensional hand drawing, antique illustration and so on. Some teachers and great gods often share how to draw.

How to teach illustration course by yourself based on zero foundation? Experience sharing should not be too ambitious at first. First copy the simplest works drawn by your favorite illustrator, and then slowly find out the shortcomings, and cram up the basic knowledge of painting such as sketch (black, white, gray, light and shadow relationship) and sketch (proportion and dynamics of human and animal body structure). Finally, on the macro level, perseverance is very important. If there is no basis for painting, let's start with copying. Copying is the best way to get started. Learn from others' strengths. Copy more, you will gradually understand something, and you will find progress. Don't use computer to draw at first, practice some hand-drawn things first, and then use board drawing. You can quickly master the function of using the tablet without using the mouse.