Gazette editorial cartoonist Anna Paliy recently spoke with freelance illustrator Antony Hare, whose work has appeared in publications like the New Yorker and the National Post. Hare discussed what it means to be an illustrator, the obstacles he’s faced in his career, and his time at Western.

Where do you find your inspiration? Do you cater to your audience?

I consume a considerable amount of media. A combination of old and new, static and moving. I don’t cater my work in the sense that I don’t articulate to myself how a certain person might see something in my work. However, I have my visual art biases, and so naturally people that enjoy clean lines and mostly black and white forms will be pre-disposed to enjoy what they see in my work. My style is [...]an exercise in realizing the images in my mind’s eye. I believe the hand is the best tool for this kind of realization, and so the style I use is, today, my best route.

When did your passion for illustration begin?

Most young children enjoy drawing, and I suppose some of us enjoy it just a little bit more. I basically never stopped. To lose this pleasure, to freely sketch or doodle, is dangerous.Of course I profit from this mass exodus, but clearly the feedback the brain gets from a drawing hand is important for development. It has been a gradual process. I saw, I drew, and that improved how I saw. Repeat.

This feedback loop has been developing in me since around grade three. That’s when I first noticed my friends abandoning drawing. I had a desire to mark up pages, but I wasn’t the guy at the back of the class with amazing dragon renderings in his scribbler. It was faces, just  slightly more advanced than a smiley. I just enjoyed doodling those  faces, and so I kept it up. It’s only been in the last few years or so where I’ve developed something of a reasonably reliable skill.

How have you dealt with the challenges and obstacles of pursuing a career in illustration?

It is fortunate how well the folks at the [National Post] and I work together. I work well with deadlines, and so I think we struck up a mutually beneficial relationship. Of course the decreasing budgets put a strain on us, but that’s how it goes. It goes the other way, too. One fundamental benefit to being a small business is the diversification of my client base. When one client goes through a change, I can put the focus elsewhere. I picked this up from my post-university days in advertising. Client service. It hasn’t always been easy. I’ve come close to throwing in the towel say twice in six years, [but] I’ve been extremely fortunate. It took years of quitting full-time work [...]to ween myself off the web design ad work which paid the bills when I graduated [in 1998]. The reality is, one day I realised I wasn’t relying on it. It wasn’t two weeks after I first gave my notice.

In terms of illustration in journalism, I think the single biggest asset an illustrator or designer can have is the ability to work well, fast. [This] means having a process that is able to produce results in hours and not days. Clearly nobody can do the impossible, so you just work with the constraint, and lean on it for strength, if you have to. All work is frustrating when you feel like you’re spinning your tires. So the benefit of a tight timeline is the simple non-existence of tire-spinning. The benefit of a looser timing is the opportunity to explore. The cost? Meandering; getting blindsided.

What kinds of art do you enjoy?

I love looking at most all photography, especially of people in context, animation, comics, editorial cartoons, poster art, video game art. I admire too many artists to list. Many of my influences are evident in my work. I also admire arts where I’m not capable. My hearing is horrible, for example, but I love sound in art and sounds period. I also love live performances like dancing and acting, but a performer I am not. I love art forms, and I admire the fruits born of dedicating oneself to form, to craft. My favourite art form, if I had to pick, is cinema.

Do you focus exclusively on graphic illustration, or are there other mediums you enjoy?

I can draw, on paper, on boards, with charcoal, pencils, markers, ink, paint. But I’m not a good painter in the layering or texturing sense. I can work with colour, but my work is not colourful. I like colourful work, and I will endeavor to get there one day.

My work on the computer is a hybrid of drawing and sculpting. Since my production tools are digital tools, I don’t even pretend to manipulate atoms the way I can manipulate bits. I’ll make greeting cards and other paper [projects]. I’d like to do some installation [and] projection work. One way to look at my overall interest is: light and shadow. So use of light, as in cinema and other media, is likely to be a cornerstone of what I end up working on.

Many artists who use computers use it augment their offline work. While I love using pencils to get ideas going, my creative process is largely indistinguishable from my production process. I’m going to focus on this digital process moving forward because there are many interesting misconceptions about the process that students of all stripes are bound to find interesting. So with this might come a diverging interest in developing digital illustration tools, educational tools.

What do you hope to do in the future?

I’m working on a few things. I want to do more illustrated stories. I’m trying one-panel absurdist comics on Levitorium, and I’m working on a web comic, Fraser, Ontario. So I see the illustrations containing more words, more objects. I recently completed a coat of arms which I’m using as a map for where I should head.

As above, I’m developing a stand-alone illustration application that is based on the digital illustration process I’ve developed in the last decade. I’m not an engineer, and so I’m currently seeking a software engineering partner to help me realise my software ideas. I have about a dozen ideas in play at all times, but some take the focus for a period of weeks. As I write this, working on illustration is my primary focus.

How did your education, particularly your time at Western, impact your current career?

I completed my first proper commercial illustration while a student at Western. I was working with Nerds On-Site in the early days. They’re still using the logo I created and for a time, they were using my illustration of “The Nerd” as their mascot. That early experience offered up many hints at what could be around the corner if I pursued illustration and design. I started my personal site, Siteway, while a student at Western, too. I was 19 and registered the domain name in the basement of Social Science Centre while I was supposed to be working on an Econometrics project. Siteway has been my online home for fourteen years. Most of the work I do of a public nature online is available via Siteway.

[As for Western's contribution], it has been impossible to ignore. My time at Western and my degree [..] contributed to my ability to adapt to new environments, articulate myself, and tackle problems. Problem-solving is one of those phrases that sounds vague until you understand what thinking about a problem can do for you. It’s a real benefit: for you future managers, your colleagues, your friends.

Philosophy teaches that kind of thinking, and it’s been invaluable to me. Back then I had some confusion about what was going to happen to my career after school. It was one of the thoughts I’d had, and so that’s what made me put the focus on Philosophy in my third year. It’s one of those subjects that when taught right, actually inspires people to become better, thinking citizens. At least that’s been my experience with the Western Philosophy grads who I count as my closest friends. I didn’t have the idea that my degree was a ticket to a specific job. I considered my time at Western a braced preparation for what was ahead. I felt fortunate enough just being there.