Words of wisdom from a great illustrator...

What advice would you give to an aspiring illustrator?

"Technical competence as an artist is of course essential, but it is merely a tool for the realization of ideas; without a strong imagination, the display of skill is just that – and ‘style’ is interesting, but only if backed up by content. It helps to remain interested in all forms of art, and have a good grasp of art history as well as some knowledge of art theory. This very often becomes the unseen backbone of artistic thinking. Developing a visual sensibility and vocabulary, rather than just technical skills, means that you can be versatile enough to deal with many different projects, and find original solutions.

As long as you are doing something, even if it isn't successful, you are not wasting your time. The greatest achievement of so much creative work is simply finding time and dedication to do it, especially when it seems difficult and less than enjoyable (almost every project seems to involve some kind of confidence-wounding ‘crisis’). Good ideas and talent aren't worth much if they aren't put through the wringer of actual hard work.

Pay attention to criticism, and don't pay attention to criticism! At the end of the day, you are the ultimate judge of your own work, so learn to be critical in an affirmative rather than negative way. All creators - if they are any good - suffer from periods of disappointment, even depression with their own achievements (or lack thereof), that's perfectly normal! Just keep going, if you want to cross that threshold. You also never find out if you've really failed until you actually finish a piece of work.

Finally, for anyone interested in being an artist, illustrator, designer - learn to draw well! It's a valuable foundation, something you'll always use. Drawing is one way of learning to see well, something that takes several thousand hours of practice (and even then, never entirely mastered!). If I only had one piece of advice to a young artist (of any age) it would be that: draw, draw, draw!"

-Shaun Tan