PAUL ROBERTS
PROMINA SHRESTHA
Paul Roberts is a Senior Lecturer in Illustration at the Arts University Bournemouth In the UK. His current research explores illustration contexts and the impact of digital technologies on the development of illustration practices and their reception. In 2012 he co-wrote the Digital Art Technique Manual for Illustrators and Artists with Joel Lardner.
Promina successfully coordinated ‘Artists in the City Urbanization and Urban Culture’ (October 2010 – March 2011 and May 2012 - July 2012) where a platform for dialogue between the artist community and other urban disciplines was established. The event demonstrated the importance and utility of public spaces and more than 50,000 visitors took part in the event over a weeklong exhibition. She is currently working on a research on ‘Children’s Illustration in Nepal: an imagined identity’.
Defining the Itinerant Illustrator in the 21st Century
Children’s Illustration in Nepal: An Imagined Identity
Contemporary illustration within the UK has realised a broad expansion into areas previously held as the domains of other subjects, whilst the move towards digital publishing has begun to further push the applications of illustration. It is not unusual to find illustrators working as animators, filmmakers, fashion designers, graphic designers, 3D artists, and more. However, there is a potential crisis facing the definition of illustration. Whilst the contemporary illustrator seems to move comfortably between mediums, the use of the term ‘illustrator’ becomes increasingly problematic in terms of defining a set of practices or attitudes that are easily encompassed by the word. We may rightly celebrate the itinerant illustrator as a constant traveller who moves freely between fields, subjects, and media. There is also a more negative connotation to the word itinerant, of homelessness or aimless wandering. This paper sets out to broadly map the contemporary field of illustration, and question whether there is a need to take a moment to assess or reaffirm what the term illustration and its associated practices mean, or could mean, in the 21st century.
Illustration in Nepal is a field that has not been considered academically important outside its circle. Images often included without a technical understanding of the context or of the power it has over its readers, but are seen merely as fillers; this has been particularly so with children’s illustration. The history of children’s illustration in Nepal is fairly recent, however the last decade has been defined by new ways of representations in book illustration, being drawn by newer digital technologies, thus giving it a new platform for recognition. The paper seeks to trace the historical trajectory in Nepal’s children’s illustrations and examines how the Nepali illustration style has been influenced by the country’s socio-political history. Further, it looks at how domestic and foreign influences along with the advances in technology has allowed artists to imagine an identity for children through its history .