The Application Of Materials In Contemporary Illustration

Since the beginning of illustration, people have been attracted by this kind of vivid and diverse language which interpret content and ideas accurately and easily. With the process of illustration’s growing up, we see various branches derived in the long history as well. During the past one hundred years, in contemporary society, brand new media, materials and ways of reading keep effecting on illustrations, making illustrations more fruitful and delicate. As an independent research in art form, illustrations go through from 2D plane of hand-painted, CG(Computer Graphic), involving paper-carving, to using materials as a tool to narrate content. This study is going to concentrate on material-illustrations, such a relatively small niche.At the beginning of the study, we specify the concept of materials under the discussing background. Contemporary material-illustrations not only absorb the traditional skills of collage art, but developed unique and variable style under its own characteristics of communication. The definition of “material” we discuss in contemporary material-illustrations is different from that in traditional collage art and mixed media. First, the choices of illustration materials are more broad and flexible, and the materials almost come from things readily available in daily life, not belonging to traditional mixed materials commonly used in collage art. Second, mixed-material illustration has essential difference in the purpose of material application compared with collage art. Collage art regards art perception and visual impact as the first appeal; while mixed-material illustration does not aim at pursuing decoration and emotional expression, and instead, it inclines to content readability and interest. It finds creation point between themes and certain materials according to the needs of spots or scenes. Its primary purpose is to establish certain rational logic relationship between graphics and materials and to trigger interest rather than obtaining image pleasure. In addition, mixed-material illustration also owns unique value in aesthetic taste, while collage art mainly expresses creators’ free will, which can produce not any significance. The aesthetic value of collage art is reflected in its strong visual impact brought by unrestrained self-expression; while the creation of mixed-material illustration is based on literature, so it possesses rich associability and creating space. In the design of illustration, the value judgment criterion of mixed materials lies in whether they can convey o a more vivid and novel meaning than pure graphic illustration as well as whether the materials are properly used and play a positive role in serving the illustration content. Therefore, its final aesthetic value lies in its dramatic and logical sense of interest. In summary, the application of materials in mixed material illustration is no longer the traditional piling and layout. Its design always puts stimulating interests and promoting experience in the first place. The research focuses its attention on seeking for more stimulating ways in order to convey the information of illustration, and thereby serves for reading and promoting dissemination. In mixed material illustration, the design approach of combining two-dimension and three-dimension is adopted, which is rare in domestic book market and multi-media design currently, so it owns good research and practice value. In this paper, methods such as literature research, case analysis and interdisciplinary research are applied to analyze relevant theories and cases of internationally representative designers in this field. The research summarizes and generalizes basic forms and laws of traditional collage art with different vehicles, and then explores the possibility and application techniques of mixed materials in contemporary illustration design. Moreover, it makes in-depth study and analysis on the design theories and application techniques. It also combines actual projects to have multi-angle and deep thinking and exploration and makes prospect on the development tendency of mixed material illustration according to the current situation.