Artist Advice - Rohan Eason

I contacted illustrator Rohan Eason to see if he could give me any advice on my portfolio and wesbsite. Ive done an interview with him on the Q & A Blog section on here. Thank you Rohan :) 

Rohan 

Hi Jordan, 

Your website is looking great, a lot of strong images, with Nice use of block colour and line. 

You've said your style is editorial, 

I would be careful about using this word to describe your work, and also for you when creating your work. 

Editorial is the lowest paid area of illustration, and while it is a good staple if you can get a consistent monthly or weekly magazine, it will limit the scope of your work. 

Being a commercial illustrator is about having a distinct style which a client can see working with their project, no matter what area that project lies, so I would suggest beginning to explore other areas of interest for inspiration. 

You have a nice pen style, and I'm sure you could work in other types of publication and media outlets. 

I would also suggest adding some work with faces, specially for editorial, but in all areas of illustration, the base skills of rendering the expressions of a human face are really important. It's a good tool for connecting with your client, if the figures are always turned away, or hidden, that's how your work may seem. I think that's the main criticism I would have, I want to put a face to your work, 

Hope that helps, 

Best

Rohan

Me 

Some great advice from Rohan in my opinion. Its good to know a professional likes your work. There is some really good constructive criticism here as well. In particular about not putting all your eggs into one basket, in my regard, not just doing editorial, but all forms of illustration - book, advertising .... I need to work on doing a few illustrations in books and other areas and not label my work as editorial. I completely agree with him in terms of drawing faces, its not something Ive intentionally done, but I can now see my work does lack facial expression, so I will work at that side of work and incorporate faces.