Dark Lines and Daydreams
Creative industry journalist Garrick
Webster looks at contemporary illustrators
who use black and white drawing to
explore darker modes of expression . . .
Courtesy of Ollie Johns
“My mother says I’m not quite right,” admits Ollie Johns. “The imagery
in some of my pieces can get a bit dark. However the intention is not to
shock, but to convey a feeling or message.”
Ollie Johns
The Destruction of Innocence
The ‘Destruction of Innocence’ is in Ollie Johns’
typical style. It’s about making bad choices, and
the interplay between innocence and corruption.
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Some would say it’s folly for a young illustrator like Johns to develop
a style reliant on its darker undertones. The answer to an economic
downturn is usually to look for up-beat, colourful ways of distracting
audiences from current reality - don’t mention the R-word, and avoid
depressing themes. As a commercial artist, does your style have to fit in
with this philosophy?
It doesn’t. Like other up-and-coming illustrators, Johns is finding his own
visual language. He’s tried normal and he’s tried simplistic, but that just
doesn’t work for him. So the vocabulary he’s chooses rests on a black
and white palette, sketching so intricate it verges on claustrophobic, and
themes that have made even his mother start to wonder.
If nothing else, it’s authentic. Despite the downturn, the world of design
- in advertising, publishing, films and video games – is embracing craft.
Original, hand-rendered work like that created by Masha Karpushina
can really give projects a unique twist. Like Johns, dark lines and
daydreams have dominated her images. At a time when the line
between illustration and art has never been more blurry, she looks on
her black and white period as one that explores emotion.
“When it’s done right, whereby the relationship between the white
and the black enables the viewer to become emotionally attached, it is
a great success,” she says. “For me it was the only way I could create
an image. It wasn’t so much a choice but a way which felt natural to
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