Artist: Daniel Hamilton
Location: Carlisle / Cardiff
Website: danielhamiltonillustration.blogspot.co.uk
Who are you, where are you from?
My name is Daniel Hamilton and I’m an illustrator originally from Carlisle ‘up norf’. I came to Cardiff in 2008 for university to study Illustration at UWIC (now Cardiff Met) and graduated last July 2011.
What do you do?
Since graduating I set up Morgan Arcade Studios which hosts artists studio space for 14 practicing artists, mostly illustrators. We’ve only been running a few months now, but things are going well so far! It’s a great place to be to help establish myself as an illustrator, see how others work and share ideas with other creatives in a professional environment.
Editorial illustration is my primary focus, but I don’t entirely restrict myself to that. At its core, it’s about capturing an audience in a way that gets them more engaged with information. I’m also really interested in infographics, but from a more illustrated approach rather than graphical. The information I illustrate can be in a range of contexts, from news articles, current trends, posters, maps or one of my personal favourites, showing the benefits of science!
Why do you do it?
I found I had a knack for making images when I was young and I guess it’s a combination of encouragement and wanting to better myself that’s lead to where I am now. Making images for me used to just be for fun, but as I got older – particularly during university – I realised that illustration can be a powerful tool for getting people to engage with information and learn. This capability is quite under-appreciated outside the arts, but it’s important to me that people realise the potential of it, and use it to help people learn and engage with information.
I feel that Illustration and other visual communicating methods should take a more important role in helping people to understand complicated ideas in exciting ways that build an emotional connection to learning. And I find it exciting to be able to contribute to helping people visualise the world in new ways and to help people learn.
How do you create these images?
I tend to sketch out things really roughly until I connect with an idea. Sometimes I go through many pages of doodles before I get something and other times it’ll be one of the first drawings I’ve done. When I feel like I might be onto something that works, I’ll scan it in and finish it off digitally.
Who are your influences?
There are many I look to for artistic inspiration, though much of the motivation behind my work comes from popular speakers like Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson. I love their ideas on promoting a practical look at the world and the way they enlighten about how things work while still making the scientific journey every bit as awesome and interesting as a mythical story. I find using a combination of surreal imagery with this outlook interesting and effective.
What inspires your work?
I’ve been influenced a lot recently by obscure imagery bordering on surrealism. I find it an interesting approach when trying to explain/elaborate on real world information and ideas.
What do you like?
I love to fly! I took up learning to fly a glider a few months ago and have since been aiming to get my solo license. A glider is basically a plane without an engine. Contrary to what people think, it’s cheaper than learning to drive a car. And slightly easier I find. I also love finding out how things work and why they do, something I like to bring into my illustration and try to share.
I would love to be able to do some illustrations for the New Scientist and continue to promote why I think technology is awesome and how it lets us do all these amazing things, like learn to fly planes with no engines…
What don’t you like?
I find it particularly sad when people give up on following what they love for whatever reason or are told they can’t do something. I’m not going to be unrealistic and say everyone can do anything, as I’m unlikely to invent teleportation any time soon, but people far too often give up way before they’ve even tried. I say no to that!
Find Daniel Hamilton here:
Blog: danielhamiltonillustration.blogspot.co.uk
Portfolio: danielhamilton.carbonmade.com
Originally posted 2012-03-27 09:00:31. Republished by Blog Post Promoter