Technical Illustrators.org Forum

Thought this would be a good place to have new users introduce themselves.

Hey everyone,
I stumbled across this site while looking through some of Bruce morser's Illustrations. It was a smart move on James' part to conduct a mini interview with the pencil crayon master to help establish some much needed traffic to a site dedicated solely to Technical Illustration. Currently I'm a student at Sheridan College in Oakville Ontario doing Co-op at the TTC. Same place Mr. Provost attended. (I got all your files on the P drive here, god bless these outdated PC's and analog monitors!) I got one more year which starts in September, from there I have to start building contacts which is why I think this place is a good idea. It may create competition but I'm sure it will all be friendly in the end.

I've looked through a couple of your guys portfolios on here and it has provided some good motivation.

James - loved the Boston Dynamics piece
Hatch - I didn't know you did that half drawn honda ATV from the front... I actually used that as reference for my biomimicry project I had to do last term. Although I didn't need to know all the fine details I kinda just used it to fake all the inner workings.

Hey there,

Nice portfolio, you've got some really strong stuff in there. Thanks for coming to the site.

clint

Welcome, Kevin.

Ahh, TTC. I learned a lot there. Most importantly that I needed to become a freelancer.

I have to disagree that this site makes for competition between us. I think our greatest threat is obscurity. When I tell people what I do for a living, very few people know what technical illustration is, despite the fact that they encounter it routinely. My goal with this site is to raise awareness of all the things that technical illustration encompasses — cutaways, phantoms, renderings, instructions, infographics, maps, diagrams, icons, photo retouching; highly accurate and precise visual communication.

Of course, it's also good to know who else is out there. Just as much as other types of illustration, it pays to have a unique voice and approach to image making. Competition breeds specialization and differentiation. But if we can share resources, inspirations, business ideas, etc. and each have our niche, great!

Anyways, welcome!

clint wrote:Hey there,

Nice portfolio, you've got some really strong stuff in there. Thanks for coming to the site.

clint

Thanks Clint, Looked through yours too, You got a clean simplistic look.. really like that top down view of the shoe. Just wish everything was a bit more spaced out instead of lumped together on one page.. somehow makes the viewer think everything is related somehow and in some cases I did realized they were.

jamesprovost wrote:Welcome, Kevin.

Ahh, TTC. I learned a lot there. Most importantly that I needed to become a freelancer.

I have to disagree that this site makes for competition between us. I think our greatest threat is obscurity. When I tell people what I do for a living, very few people know what technical illustration is, despite the fact that they encounter it routinely. My goal with this site is to raise awareness of all the things that technical illustration encompasses — cutaways, phantoms, renderings, instructions, infographics, maps, diagrams, icons, photo retouching; highly accurate and precise visual communication.

Of course, it's also good to know who else is out there. Just as much as other types of illustration, it pays to have a unique voice and approach to image making. Competition breeds specialization and differentiation. But if we can share resources, inspirations, business ideas, etc. and each have our niche, great!

Anyways, welcome!

Yeah I agree that the job title of "technical illustrator" is commonly unrecognized. I usually just tell the person "Think Ikea catalogues". I know it might be a poor example but at least it's well known. Even before I entered into the Illustration stream I had no idea what the technical side encompassed. but once i was introduced I knew this was the side that interested me more than any other.
What I meant with competition was that we would all challenge each other to keep improving, being surrounded by many other great artist doing the same genre of work will hopefully help us all to continue to grow and improve. Sharing resources and other ideas is a great but sharing/borrowing may lock us into a set style that has been already established. I wanna see fresh new ideas being brought to the table. I'll be the first to admit that I've already been sucked into certain styles associated to the technical side.. the extended cosmetic lines, set line weights, overly saturated visuals... these all look good to me but I'm willing to experiment and change up some of the standards as long as it is still easily legible to the viewer.

Kevin Prendergast wrote:

clint wrote:Hey there,

Nice portfolio, you've got some really strong stuff in there. Thanks for coming to the site.

clint

Thanks Clint, Looked through yours too, You got a clean simplistic look.. really like that top down view of the shoe. Just wish everything was a bit more spaced out instead of lumped together on one page.. somehow makes the viewer think everything is related somehow and in some cases I did realized they were.

Thanks for the constructive criticism, i'll keep that in mind. As long as we are at it you may want to consider removing the near naked picture of yourself on your contact page, seems a little unprofessional, unless of course you are only going after body building clients.

clint wrote:

Kevin Prendergast wrote:

clint wrote:Hey there,

Nice portfolio, you've got some really strong stuff in there. Thanks for coming to the site.

clint

Thanks Clint, Looked through yours too, You got a clean simplistic look.. really like that top down view of the shoe. Just wish everything was a bit more spaced out instead of lumped together on one page.. somehow makes the viewer think everything is related somehow and in some cases I did realized they were.

Thanks for the constructive criticism, i'll keep that in mind. As long as we are at it you may want to consider removing the near naked picture of yourself on your contact page, seems a little unprofessional, unless of course you are only going after body building clients.

Haha, yeah consider it already done. I left it up for a specific reason regarding natural sponsor ship deals I was after. Once I am all done with the Bachelors program at Sheridan it will be gone along with some of the more weaker pieces. Just needed it up there temporairly.

Quick question: Do you not consider the human body art?

Kevin Prendergast wrote: Quick question: Do you not consider the human body art?

I consider the female human body art.

clint wrote:

Kevin Prendergast wrote: Quick question: Do you not consider the human body art?

I consider the female human body art.

Big 10-4 on that apricot. personally I go for the Spanish, Italian and Greeks. gotta love long dark hair. - Anyways thanks for helping to get such a site off the ground for the rest of us.

Hi there,

good to see a little grouping off technical illustrators on the web some very talented people here

Im a traditionaly trained tech ill. but my first job was straight onto a computer and have never used a pen or brush proffesionaly before i trained at bournemouth uk. but took my first position in hamburg, germany, and have been here ever since.

tech ill is the only job ive ever done and have been doing it full time for 13 years now. ive been freelanceing now for about a year and am loving it

you can check out my online portfolio here if you like: http://www.glenjohnson.de

you can even download some of my 3d models if you use cinema 4d from here: http://theglenster.blogspot.com/

cheers
glen