Jonathan Woodward’s an artist, a nomad and a soon-to-be father. The man behind Zero2Illo.com, a blog for aspiring children’s book illustrators, Jon shares his passion for creativity and his good business sense.
Woodward grew up in Nottingham, the home of Robin Hood. (Hmm, no wonder he was drawn to children’s literature.) He was known as the “arty one” in school, the kid who would always be asked to draw the posters for school plays.
After studying Graphic Design in college, Woodward worked as an in-house designer before going freelance in 2006.
To Woodward, freelance means freedom to explore. He and his wife rented out their UK home in 2007 and have been on the road since, living in Panama, Buenos Aires, Grenada, Toronto, South Africa, Thailand, Hong Kong and Dubai. The internet makes running their marketing and design business from anywhere possible.
Jon, how do your travels influence your illustration style?
I wouldn’t say that they have directly influenced it from color or style perspective based on the different cultures that we have seen (although that is an aspect I really love about the travel), but having seen so much beautiful wildlife and nature around the world, it has definitely influenced the subject matter that I illustrate.
Tell us about some of your most recent illustrations.
One for Sorrow, Two for Joy is the piece that led to my current collage style of working. I’d been flicking through magazines and noticed how much the hair on a particular advert looked like tree bark–it was one of those light bulb moments!
The idea for the final illustration came from a song I was listening to at the time that coincidentally tied in with my idea for the tree (and my love of crows!).
The Phoenix is from a recent set of four illustrations based on mythical beasts. Here I was trying to pare down the collage to a bare minimum–to create a bolder, simpler illustration style that might be more suitable for a children’s book.
I enjoy finding textures of a particular surface that are perfect for conveying a totally different texture in the illustration. This happened with the feet of the Phoenix. I found a picture of a model wearing a sparkly bejeweled top and instantly knew that I had to use it for the feet.
This piece was done mostly in traditional collage, with just a bit of detailing, adding the white eye and pumping up the colours a little in Photoshop.
A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing is where I first started using acrylic paint alongside the collage medium. It’s a technique born out of necessity, as I was struggling to find a magazine clipping to represent the wolf fur, so I started working into the collage with paint. I got a bit carried away in the end and ended up painting the sheep’s head and zipper on top of the collage, too.
This was an interesting piece personally, as I had previously been creating collages digitally using scanned magazine clippings, but I realized that my choice of texture ended up being a lot more interesting if I did the collage traditionally using whatever I could find within the magazines and materials I had. I don’t think I would have chosen the printed text to represent the sheep wool had I been doing the piece digitally.
Who are some of your favorite illustrators?
My illustration inspirations and interests are quite diverse, ranging from artists like Jon Foster, Dave McKean and James Jean all the way to Shaun Tan and J. Otto Seibold.
What is your ultimate goal as a children’s book illustrator?
I initially thought I wanted to go into comics or sci-fi and fantasy illustration for book covers, but the theme and content of my illustrations always seemed to gravitate back to one of my other passions: wildlife and nature. If I was only ever allowed to illustrate creatures great and small for the rest of my illustration career, I’d be a very happy man.
Thanks for sharing your wonderful artwork, Jon!
If you’re interested in learning more about the ilustration and design work of Jonathan Woodward, visit his blog Zero2Illo.com and follow him on Twitter at @jonwoodward.
Thanks again for another great interview. Jonathan is a great inspiration to get out there and see the world.
Keep up the good work.
[...] Episode 9 – Zero 2 Illo « Escape From Illustration Island escapefromillustrationisland.com/2009/10/20/episode-9-zero-2-illo – view page – cached tags: audio interview, efii, escape from illustration island, illustration, jonathan woodward, Podcast, zero 2 illo by Thomas James — From the page [...]
Very inspiring and a lot of information in this podcast.
Great Job!
He’s so fresh, honest and straight forward. I can’t tell you how much i enjoyed finding this site and his. Thank you.
Great interview Thomas. Very valuable, honest and genuine information by Jonathan. Kudos to him for sharing his experience. I especially like that he is thinking outside the traditional box in terms of his market and opportunities for marketing his work outside the traditional avenues. He’s more entrepreneurial than most.
Thomas that is fantastic!!!! I’m really enjoying the site!
Love your blog and mood swings :))
Jonathan’s talking about being not a natural promoter of self is something I can really relate to – writers are observers not life of the party folk! The need to be blowing your own horn stuff vs look at me look at me is something I have struggles with too..
Thanks everyone for all the great feedback and love. Jonathan truly is a great inspiration, and I really enjoyed speaking with him.
Do any of the listeners out there do anything similar on their blogs, as far as sharing their efforts to break into the field?
To Whom It May Concern,
I’d like to submit my name for the drawing. I’ve really wanted to have one for the longest time. I used one in 2007 and miss it so much. I realize that I am a day late. Are you still accepting entries?
I invite you to see my website, http://www.lancasterillustrationanddesign.com.
Thank you,
Brian
Hello Brian,
Thanks for your note. I’ll be accepting entries until Sunday the 25th at midnight PST. There are instructions on how to enter in the first 10 minutes of Episode 9 of the Podcast.
Best of luck to you!