EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 14 © 2016 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

79 AS: Making a career of illustration has never been easy. I think that these days modern technology offers illustrators exciting new ways to create and present their work. There is a healthy appetite for all things creative, and hopefully many opportunities for illustrators to flourish. However, I think the toughest challenge for new illustrators these days is to stand out from the crowd. There are so many new illustrators emerging each year: It has become harder to be noticed. PR: What advice would you give to people trying to make a career of illustration? AS: I said it earlier, but I will say it again: Learn to draw. It is fundamental to everything else. Be the best at what you do. Love what you do. Always go the extra mile when sending in samples of work to publishers. Add personal touches. Make your submission special. Do your research. Do not submit work to clients who will have no use for it, it will waste your time and theirs. Seek inspiration from everything around you, but particularly from things unique to you, and from what you find fascinating. It will help you develop your own voice, your own way of doing things. This will help you produce the best work you can and stand out from the crowd. Be tenacious. Develop your own side projects during any gaps in work, whether they are picture book ideas, cards, prints, pottery, anything. It will all feed back in to your main work. And while I am at it, don’t forget to exercise. It jogs ideas loose LEFT AND FACING PAGE: Although Adam generates the majority of his work employing traditional methods, his cover work for Money Week is created entirely on the computer to accommodate a brief that arrives on a Tuesday afternoon for a Wednesday morning delivery. ABOVE: A superbly dark and ironic cover for Gareth P. Jones 'The Thornthwaite Inheritance', published by Bloomsbury Publishing in 2009.