M-
I’ll
do a drawing that I think is quite an odd thing and then I’ll
find a title, it’ s a way of doing a book that utilises what a
book can be as a concept. When I started the book I found that the images
where quite fractured and disparate and a lot of what I’ve had
to think about has been about how I can get a sense of narrative without
doing a lot of writing, how can I get the page turning and give it a
linear feel.
T – I’m
curious about the rendering of the drawing, is that artful, knowingly
19th century and 20th century using wooden panels prepared with gesso
to draw onto with biro it feels like that could be an intentional decision
?
R – The logic behind it goes back
to my BA ? it’s not meant to be incongruous, the working on gesso
came about because I was working in oil paint and biro but you cant
draw in biro on canvas and so this was just surface I tried that was
very interesting to work on, for two reasons really, one was the sanding
back of it, so you can rework it and work into it, sand and draw sand
and draw, also you can change the key, the initial surface you work
on. The question ‘Why biro’ is an older question that goes
farther back in my practice, it’s a very iconic object,the biro,
that sits there like Times New Roman and you just don’t notice
it. Another reason is that I find after five years of working in biro
that working in pencil just feels incredibly clumsy.
T – Oh god, I know what you mean
I tried to do some pencil drawing recently and it feels like that to
me, a different level of commitment to the process maybe ?
,R-
I’m still playing around with oil paint feeding into biro and there’s
a lot of technical stuff with that that I find fascinating even if it
is a bit nerdy.
T – You do nerd out, it’s an
aspect of your character that I’ve certainly observed and your also
professionally quite
calculating?
R – I don’t have a problem with
business, I find business very fascinating and I think mentally being
able to separate them off helps me, so I know that if what I am doing
is purely creative I don’t respond to that aspect but at other times
I’ll be very aware of the client.
T – There is a sense with you that
you are very conscious of professional practice of building a portfolio
but it’s fair to say that your work isn’t obviously commercial.
R – Yes, but then I suppose that brings
me to nub of what I think authorial illustration is, what separates it
from fine art is that, it’s context, the illustration thing.
T – Can you define that a little more?
R – I think you would need to enter
into a broader discussion, spending a lot of time defining where fine
art is culturally and where illustration is and looking at where the space
between those two is. But for me clearly but at some point in some part
of your creative output working as an illustrator you must be delivering
work on spec, to a brief which has an element of somebody else’s
message to it, that to me is what sets our practice apart from fine art.
But another part of illustration for me is having something to push against
and the authorial thing is just a way of stretching an art directors vision
about what I can do.
T- Sure, because however much it would be
nice to have a massive say in the development of a commission, it’s
very much the case that you either work with an art director and are to
a large extent compliant or you won’t work with them again because
there are a 100 other illustrators that will be totally flexible. So that
creative friction that that you get with a difficult process like making
a narrative becomes a place where development can take place ?
R – Yes, though I think there is a
skill in knowing when to book a tutorial, to know when you have enough
resolved to keep going. Sometimes I think people look for help when they
are totally lost and then there is a danger that the person ends up doing
somebody else’s work, if you know what I mean? So it's different
from a BA course where you would expect them to intervene far more because
the work is still immature.
T - Ok well i think it's time for me to go
to the pub.
R
- Thats a very good idea i think i'll join you.
Tom – I’m interested in process, can you describe the way you have your studio arranged ?
Richard – Well, I have it quite deliberately set-up so that I’ve got three distinct working areas, for collage, roughs and drawing and sketching. In terms of process this just as you happen to find it now, is a good example of how I am working at the moment. I am working on a page from a five page book, called ‘ A Naval Disaster’ and its got four pages to go.
T – Are you working with text ?
R - Well…no, these four will have no text but what I am starting to get interested in is how a little bit of text can set a big context, so for each chapter there will be the title just on its own. I like the idea that you see the text on its own and then turn the page to view the image.
"World of small things' by 'Richard Dinnis 2008 pub Atlantic Press
project funded by the 'Atlantic Graphic Literature Prize' 2008