“Any subject-matter is no more, or less, complicated than any other if you break it into small enough sections. A big, complex object like a car, plane or ship is just 30 or 40 small illustrations that happen to occupy the same space.”
The career of technical illustrator extraordinaire Kevin Hulsey is nothing short of prolific. His client list reads like a roll call of the world’s major transportation, technology, manufacturing and entertainment companies. His work has been recognized with numerous awards from Belding, Best in the West, Communication Arts Magazine, and the Art Directors Club Of Los Angeles. He began his trade with an airbrush in hand, then traded it in for a Wacom tablet and made the leap to digital media. And his website is an abundant source of inspiration, with illustrations of mind-boggling complexity and accuracy and myriad resources, articles and tutorials.
This all keeps Mr. Hulsey rather busy—unfortunately for us too busy for an interview. However, with his permission, I’ve collected some links to images, resources, and an interview he did with another site:
- Interview at DesignerTechniques.com
- Kevin Hulsey Illustration portfolio website
- Artist’s Bio
- Technical Illustration Tutorials & Lessons, in particular:
Pickup Truck Cutaway – Copyright © 2010 Kevin Hulsey Illustration, Inc. All rights reserved.
Motor Illustration – Copyright © 2010 Kevin Hulsey Illustration, Inc. All rights reserved.
“Even after nearly thirty years, and thousands of illustrations, it is still fun to see your work on a billboard or in a magazine, particularly when you aren’t expecting it.”
Big thanks to Mr. Hulsey for sharing his time and work with us, and all the amazing resources on his site!
Update: Wacom case-study on Mr. Hulsey. (now on Internet Archive)
All images copyright © 2010 Kevin Hulsey Illustration, Inc. All rights reserved.
Obviously one of the best. Makes me wonder who his influences are. One thing I sincerely regret about my college education was that my instructors never really taught us the history of technical illustration or who the masters where. I know there are some japanese guys who came before Hulsey and I think he even mentions them on his site now that I think about it. I know Hatch has experience with it but I can’t imagine how they did their thing with airbrushes. Would love to see that in action.
Kevin also has some crazy SEO going on with his site. I bet you could search for dog food and it would come up in the results.
@Clint: The link to his Masters Gallery is here: http://www.khulsey.com/masters_gallery_art_of_the_cutaway.html
I feel my education lacked a historical perspective too, that or I was so busy learning practical stuff that I didn’t have time to appreciate the masters that figured it all out. As Hulsey says in his interview, sadly a lot of the old books on the subject are now out of print.
Time for me to go to the library!
Absolutely inspiring work. And yes, Kevin’s listing always comes up on page 1 in searches. But then, I am glad searchers get to see his amazing work.
Patience of a saint, superb skill.