Tuesday, March 11, 2008

A Day in the Life of an Illustrator


So my friend Marie, knowing my sense of humour, recently gave me a copy of 'A Day in the Life of an Illustrator', a 1981 kid's book detailing the thrilling life of the freelance artist, and I figure some of you would appreciate it as well. So just what does an illustrator do everyday?

An illustrator tries to convince someone with questionable taste in vests to give her a job! She has lunch with another, hairier illustrator!

She spends money she doesn't have on things she doesn't need! She eats quiche with her plaid flannel wearing sister pat! (I'm not making that last bit up, by the way.)

She wallows in a pit of of despair, self doubt and self loathing at her drawing table at 3 in the morning! All in all, a fairly accurate view of the life :D What's really interesting about the book is spotting all the things that have been rendered obsolete (or nearly so) by the computer- rolodexes! airbrushes! transfer type! photo stat houses! Its hard to imagine a world without command z- no wonder she looks so depressed.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

MOST AMAZING BOOK EVER! D:
WOW. But she is missing her many pets.

Esther Westwood said...

3 am and working, some things even the mighty command Z cannot change. thanks for posting this

Peter Emmerich said...

You are one of the few people that can make me laugh out loud with your comments. Very funny!

Anonymous said...

She's not wallowing in a pit of of despair, self doubt and self loathing at her drawing table at 3 in the morning, she's cursing the *#$@# art director who just wanted some "minor changes"! And as anyone from the pre-computer days knows there are no such things as "minor changes". She's thinking...if only there was a machine that could do this work in a 10th of the time, I'd make 10x more money, get my beauty rest & be able to afford something more fashionable to wear when I meet my hairy friend for lunch! I love my mac!