Guest speaker: Bruce Ingman

Children's book illustrator Bruce Ingram came in to talk to us today. I have been all over the place with sorting out work for our gallery show at The Bargate that doing anything else, including typing up things for this blog, has taken a back seat so I didn't take some time to have a look at his work beforehand specifically. However I had noticed one of the books he illustrated; The Runaway Dinner in our studio and like the humour of it. It's not the sort of style that I would usually enjoy looking at, but I like the use of painterly markings that make the images feel more hand made.

I was surprised to hear that Bruce was actually deaf as a child (I'll admit I zoned out for like a couple of seconds while looking at the board and missed any how or why explanations) and this is what lead to him drawing and reading. This just really got me listening, as I was so intrigued to hear his story. Looking back to my childhood, drawing and art was definitely a vice for me and so I think it was nice to hear that it was a similar story for someone else. 

Starting off in Fine Art, Bruce started making posters for a friend's film club. The project meant he had deadlines and that was the first step in choosing Illustration over fine art I think. He said fine art felt very self sufficient, which seemed very true to my opinions. Illustration had a bit more of a grounding. Moving to the Royal College where he was taught by Quentin Blake. Quentin gave him some advice that he shared with us; 'illustrate the moment just before or the moment just after'. It seems like it makes total sense; don't be literal. But I think it was just some really good advice put in such a clear way. Allow the interpretation to be made by the viewer; essentially that is who we give the work over  to. This was pretty much the main thing I took from the lecture.