A PRIMER ON EDITORIAL ILLUSTRATION
Last week, we did a spotlight on what our survey data (92 records as of 24/10/20 ) is telling us about 'Editorial Illustration' .You can see what the data indicated here.
We also had a lot of interest from artists who work in other illustration genres who have been wanting to get into editorial illustration, so we decided to do a primer :)
This post is for some one uninitiated in the field of editorial illustration, artists working in other genres wanting to give this a shot. We also have some samples of lovely editorial illustration at the end, and some great illustration resources too.
Do tell us about your editorial assignments here If you haven't already. (In case you are uninitiated 'What do they pay' is our anonymized pricing survey for freelance illustrators and graphic designers based out of India, together we hope we can understand the elusive pricing behemoth!)
Starting off with the basics-
WHAT EXACTLY IS EDITORIAL ILLUSTRATION?
Editorial Illustrations are cartoons/artwork/illustrations for magazines, newspapers digital or print. Subjects can be anything from politics, reportage, nature, conservation. fiction, fantasy, human interest- pretty much the range of subjects that you have magazines and publications on. (Association of Illustrators describes the genre thus -'Beyond words Illustration for journalism and comment in digital or print format for example: feature articles ,news items ,cartoons ,political satire ,reportage, documentary, current affairs')
Media used to create editorial illustrations range from traditional pen and ink, watercolors, acrylics, digital painting, vector graphics, photography, collage, paper cuts, photo editing to playfully animated gifs and AR. What we are trying to say here is that there is a publication for every style and medium!
Editorial illustrations are typically a conceptual, abstracted representation of what the accompanying article conveys. They are meant to pique interest, suggest the mood of the article. Having said that, some articles require a literal interpretation of the subject matter, the scope for play here comes in the choice of media used, colors etc (collage, paper cut for example for scientific drawings)
IS EDITORIAL ILLUSTRATION FOR ME?
- If you can work with quick time lines (The median turnaround time for editorial illustration assignments is 4.5 days as per our survey data, typically assignments have a turnaround time between 2 days to 2 weeks)
- if you are open to reading briefs, articles on subjects new and unfamiliar to get a gist of the article you are working on, and maybe doing a little bit of research (How much of this you may have to do also depends on the publication, if there is an art director who may simplify this a bit etc)
- if you can abstract an idea into imaginative visual metaphors.
HOW TO GET WORK AND WHAT DO ART DIRECTORS/PUBLICATIONS WANT?
A third of our editorial assignment submissions from our survey (so far)were initiated by the artist. They either contacted their client via email /social media. It is a good idea to write to publications/art directors that you want to work with a selection of relevant work. From what we hear, respectful, personalized (references to what you like about the publication/art director) cold pitches seem to bring people work! Some illustrators often send postcards to art directors/publications and this too has yielded work for some.
Publications/Art Directors look for a distinct style, flexibility and openness, and a quick turn around time. More importantly, many publications, ADs are looking out for new voices, so put yourself out these, reach out!
I DON'T HAVE ANY RELEVANT WORK TO SHOW!
If you don't have commissioned work yet, and want to break into this genre, its a good idea to look up some good examples of editorial illustration -this post is a good place :), between Youtube, Udemy and Skillshare there are enough tutorials to get a brief introduction and give you the confidence to get started.
Once you've done that , pick up a recent article that you enjoyed, and make your own mock ups- i.e create editorial illustrations for these, this is a great way to pitch to prospective clients. You can add these to your portfolio (needless to say, it is important to mention that these are mock ups ). You could also put these up on stock website/license them (for a fee) to publications, so win-win :)
Some of the shortlisted entries for the world illustration awards by AOI were mockups! So don't wait to be commissioned :)We've linked to them at the end of this post.
WHO OWNS THE ILLUSTRATION I MAKE?
You always own the moral copyright of your work, however if you work for hire, your employer owns the copyrights.
According to our survey results, 50% of the illustrators owned the copyrights to the editorials they did, ideally more freelancers should own the copyrights to their artwork. Further in 50% of assignments the illustrator wasn't sure about the terms of licensing. Both these suggest that there is a lot of money being left on the table by artists, and perhaps there isn't enough of a conversation going on between the client and illustrator about this when negotiating the terms and conditions for the assignment.
Publications internationally usually license out work for about 90 days after which the illustrator is free to license the same piece to another publication, often illustrators also monetize illustrations out of their license period as stock illustrations. Illustrators also sell originals and prints of the artwork depending on how they've negotiated copyrights and license. If you do license your artwork for perpetuity, do factor that into your pricing.
In fact, a lot of literary magazines license out fine art as well to accompany their stories, so keep an eye out.
EDITORIAL ILLUSTRATIONS WE LIKE
We've made small list of editorial illustrations we like, we've tried to pick a wide range to illustrate the vast possibilities in this space. We've used low res screen grabs of the images from the publication itself (just in case the artist has concerns about it), we've linked to the articles for most of these examples.
This powerful and intentionally unsettling cover illustration is by Tariq Aziz for a report on Land acquisition legislation in India for CSE India.
This is a beautiful illustration created by Harshita Borah for Soup magazine for a personal story about hair, you can see the story here , look out of the animated illustration gif as well.
An illustration by Kruttika Susrala for a story on female voices in ancient Indian literature - the article is here (behind a paywall, but you can get a glimpse to understand the context of the illustration)
This (photo of a) painting of Savitri Bai Phule by Madhubani artist Malvika Raj has been licensed by many publications including 'Mint Lounge' and 'Outlook'.
Here is one of Brian Rea's illustrations for a story on NYT's modern love column. This playful yet poignant style has that has been a signature of this column for years has many fans. 
Here is a video of Christoph Niemann's fantastic Augmented Reality covers for the New Yorker Mag :)
Beyond these, visual journalism is another allied genre that involves not just editorial artwork, but also content that is built around the visuals, leaving you with some articles that we enjoyed in this genre-
visual journalist Nithya Subramaniam and Rohan Venkat on Indian banking sector crisis (click to read the whole piece)
Graphic Designer and cartoonist Anirban Bora's vibrant chronicle of food in Delhi (click to read the whole piece)
Visual Journalist Satwik Gade 's graphic reportage of the coal mining in Hasdeo forest (click to read the whole story)
Thats all folks! we hope this was useful. We are learning too, so feel to drop your inputs , tips resources in the comments. We'd love to hear from you.
RESOURCES, REFERENCES, ADDITIONAL RESOURCES.
Do check the resource page on our website, we have links to some great resources for freelancers.
The shortlist, longlist and awards for the World Illustration Awards hosted by the AOI are here , Its a one stop place to see a variety of illustration projects.
What art directors want is an insightful article that we found when researching for this piece.
This Design matters podcast episode featuring Brian Rea is a nice insight into his editorial process.
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