The Illustrators - Part E

LEC: What do you love about your favorite medium? What do you love about working in a different one?

WILLOW DAWSON: I'm not really sure I have a favourite medium. I love all the different shapes and forms my work takes! It's exciting to draw or paint and equally as exciting to write. In fact, I'm usually so excited I can't wait to get to the next stage. When I'm scriptwriting for months on end I long for the ability to draw, but I often don't have the chance to flex those muscles because of deadlines. And when I am in the drawing stages I very quickly develop the itch to write!

One of the challenges I love about writing is trying to figure out how a character should talk. What kinds of expressions would they say and how? Why would they say them like that? When it comes to drawing, I love the challenge of working with only two colours: black ink on white paper, it really forces you to simplify. When painting, it's the colours I love playing with.

BRIAN DEINES: I work in oil paint (on canvas for my books) with a stand oil, linseed and alkyd medium. The texture of the canvas comes through and gives a certain vibration to the images. The slow drying time of the oils (slightly sped up by the alkyd liquin) gives me time to arrange the paint in a fashion that is suitable hopefully in the end for the required image.

DIEGO HERRERA (YAYO): My favorite medium is the imagination. I like to see the world through images. Pencils, acrylics, watercolors or any other medium help you to say something you need and you want to communicate. A new tool, for instance, a graphic tablet, is a new way to expand your freedom and your happiness.

KAREN PATKAU: My favorite medium is digital. I work with Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. I love creating illustrations digitally, because I can move graphic elements around, change their sizes and colors easily, and I do not have to clean up paint, pastels, or glue.


I love trying different mediums, because I never know what I’m going to learn or what new direction it will take me in creatively.

RICHARD RUDNICKI: I paint in acrylic. My illustrations are on 300 pound hot pressed watercolour paper. Conversely, I paint on canvas for my studio paintings. I paint in a highly realistic style that is also very expressive in the use of colour, composition and content. An attribute I like about acrylic is that it can be used as a thin, translucent wash, as well as thicker and more opaque. It dries quickly and is a very versatile medium. I paint a lot, and it is my medium of choice.

I also illustrate in pen and ink, with ink washes. Line is a fundamental element of art, and I do a lot of drawing.


I find with these two techniques there are so many possibilities that I have a lifetime of learning and exploration ahead of me, and feel no need to experiment with other processes. However, I do enjoy print making, and am exploring animation with an eye to e-books.