Illustrated worlds, virtual environments and authorial voice

The practice of the contemporary illustrator is no longer exclusively defined by the traditional orthodoxies of the commissioner and illustrator relationship. Contemporary Illustration has expanded the parameters of the discipline to include toys, games, animation, collectable objects, fashion and other forms of media and merchandising. This multi-disciplinary and authorial practice is often predicated on the creation of an identifiable, virtual 'world' that is manifest across an illustrator's output, independent of variations in audience, purpose and subject matter. This paper will explore the illustrator's use of visual language in constructing virtual worlds that define authorial voice. Drawing from a range of contemporary and historical examples, the paper will explore the capacity of illustration to generate a virtual world that engages and absorbs its audience. How does an illustrator use the language of exaggeration, distortion, symbolism and metaphor to construct a system of coherent signifiers that constitute a world that is repeatedly revisited across their practice? The paper will argue that a sense of place established through non-representational approaches can address the actual, socio-historical world through the interpretation of the constructed world's diegesis. An analysis of contemporary illustration in its relationship to genre and authorship will be discussed in relation to this premise. The paper will also consider how a world is realised across personal and commercial outputs and the interrelationship and interface of authorial and commercial imperatives. The paper will offer an assessment of these issues, offering approaches for illustrators to explore the intellectual, psychological and emotional resonance of illustrated worlds, and to extend the formal and thematic parameters that determine illustration's status as a narrative form.

The practice of the contemporary illustrator is no longer exclusively defined by the traditional orthodoxies of the commissioner and illustrator relationship. Contemporary Illustration has expanded the parameters of the discipline to include toys, games, animation, collectable objects, fashion and other forms of media and merchandising. This multi-disciplinary and authorial practice is often predicated on the creation of an identifiable, virtual 'world' that is manifest across an illustrator's output, independent of variations in audience, purpose and subject matter. This paper will explore the illustrator's use of visual language in constructing virtual worlds that define authorial voice.

Drawing from a range of contemporary and historical examples, the paper will explore the capacity of illustration to generate a virtual world that engages and absorbs its audience. How does an illustrator use the language of exaggeration, distortion, symbolism and metaphor to construct a system of coherent signifiers that constitute a world that is repeatedly revisited across their practice? The paper will argue that a sense of place established through non-representational approaches can address the actual, socio-historical world through the interpretation of the constructed world's diegesis. An analysis of contemporary illustration in its relationship to genre and authorship will be discussed in relation to this premise. The paper will also consider how a world is realised across personal and commercial outputs and the interrelationship and interface of authorial and commercial imperatives.

The paper will offer an assessment of these issues, offering approaches for illustrators to explore the intellectual, psychological and emotional resonance of illustrated worlds, and to extend the formal and thematic parameters that determine illustration's status as a narrative form.