A real storyteller

If you look at the blog of Illustration 2 student Dolores Costello you will be taken into a world where children play and discover and gain a sense of the sense of an illustrator both seeking to tell stories and evolving confidence in developing a visual language with which to communicate and describe.
What is interesting for me as a tutor is the way that Dolores is on a mission to develop as a storyteller and illustrator and that there is a process of osmosis between the images which she creates as a student and those that come from her personal practice. She is aiming for a seamless two-way flow of investigation and experimentation of ideas and approaches to using media she reveals, “It is suggested very early on in the courses to look at the exercises as if they are real briefs so I usually try and imagine the exercises as real work. I have several stories and characters in my head and often use them in the exercises.”

As well as fulfilling the course projects and assignments there is strong representation of work undertaken simultaneously, personal as well as professional projects often connected together in some way through the learning achieved. This ties in with her ambitions, “I want to draw for children, teens and anyone who feels young at heart. I would love to write and illustrate my own stories. But also illustrate other peoples’ work. Spot illustrations in magazines, puzzle pages and colouring in pages too.”
For most commercial illustrators there is a strong connection between self initiated work and commissioned pieces, each can bring challenges and opportunities that can fuel and supplement the other. Dolores has many ideas of her own, “I don’t really need much to feel inspired. Drawing has always been an urge to me. It has been something that I’ve always done. Growing up I thought everyone else did it too. I also read a lot of children’s books. I love listening to other people talking, telling big or small anecdotes from their lives. It really tickles my imagination!”

It is not only in children’s illustration that authorial practice has become more prevalent as a dimension of commercial activity- illustrators are commonly generating their own projects and taking advantage of digital facilities to produce, show, promote, sell and distribute the outcomes.
Dolores’ approach augurs well for sustained practice in the illustration field. The sense of taking ownership of the course projects and embedding the learning within the context a broader personal and professional ambition is strong and admirable. As an author her ideas are fun and thoughtful and these are adjectives that could also be used to describe her work. Even though as a student she continues to evolve and develop there is an identity in the practice and I am usually impatient to see what is coming next!