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Bored Panda once again reached out to John to ask more about his artwork.
First of all, John told us how he chooses which issues to tackle in his illustrations.
“Primarily I am a freelance illustrator who is trying to make a living, in order to showcase my work I have to produce some illustrations to showcase my work. Art editors are looking for illustrators who can convey text by the medium of an illustration and I have to base my concepts on typical subjects that I might get in a job, however, I must also make the subject universally understandable and illustrate things that resonate with most people,” explained John.
Previously John mentioned that his style has evolved over the years. We asked the artist how he balances staying true to his signature aesthetic while also adapting to the changing demands of the clients and the evolving social landscape.
“Commissions from clients are always going to be more challenging because you have specific criteria to meet, unlike the freedom you have when creating promotional work. What is important is the style has to be recognized as mine. Clients can sometimes throw curve balls during a commission in the form of a last-minute request that can compromise the whole piece, however, it’s my job to either tell them why it won’t work or try to make it work,” replied John.
John is an artist who delves into socio-political themes, therefore we asked how he handles criticism or negative feedback about his work.
“I don’t read comments very often and I believe people have a right to an opinion. Most of my work out there are commissions to serve the purpose of making a story more understandable regardless of my views. When I create promotional work, I can’t incorporate everyone’s views, I can only base them on my own,” wrote John.
Given John’s concern about injustices and his desire to address issues like corporate greed and climate change, we were curious if John himself believes that art has the power to enact meaningful change in society.
“I think young people are more likely to react to images they’ve seen, especially strong conceptual images that will get them thinking and questioning.
Those people will be running governments in the future and if my work, can plant a seed of an idea along with thousands of other illustrators’ work then I believe it can only be a good thing,” replied John.
John shared what he would like for people to take away from his art: “Please enjoy looking at them and discuss the topics within them like mental health, corporate greed, online fraud, and climate change. Also, I sell limited edition, signed prints on etsy.com!”
And lastly, John added: “One major issue that is blighting freelancers everywhere is AI. I don’t know if those using platforms like Midjourney are aware but this is killing off illustration in much the same way streaming services are killing off music.
The arts is a multi-billion dollar industry that is being taken over by these platforms. It is happening slowly enough that you won’t notice until one day an art director wants to commission a real human illustrator because they’re bored of the bland, samey, unconceptual images AI spews out for free but there won’t be many around because it’s no longer viable to be a freelance illustrator.
This isn’t me over-acting, this is happening unless we legislate against AI companies being allowed to copy illustration styles and take elements from illustrators' work. People think I must be financially ok, but the truth is, up till two years ago, I had a nice income and gradually my regular clients vanished and I've had very little work so I’m living off savings. After 28 years of hard work, I may have to stop being an illustrator and re-train to do something else. This is the hard reality and it’s because of a handful of greedy companies being allowed to develop software that basically makes people like me redundant. I want to change this behavior and get the commissioner to abandon this abhorrent software and commission real illustrators.”
