Illumination through illustration: Research methods and authorial practice

Abstract

This article proposes that the emerging field of illustration research embraces practice-led research, and will argue that it benefits practice outside of formal academic research. The author’s practice-led Ph.D. research provides the tools that will be used to investigate illustration methodologies within a research practice. These can be adopted to complement industry-oriented, brief-led ways of working to provide long-term transferable skills, enabling illustrators to be entrepreneurial, and give them a robust set of methods to identify and interrogate their subject matter.