We continue to look at the Olympics in art with illustrator, Matt Johnstone. As someone who does a lot of editorial work, Matt’s used to documenting current events, especially in sport. He does a monthly spot in The Guardian’s sport section, and so has been on the topic before, during and after the events.
However, his work has also taken him onto the walls of the underground as part of the ‘Helping London Look It’s Best’ exhibition, which was part of the P&G ‘Clean Up London’ Olympic preparations promotion.
Matt’s work is well-suited for the editorial pages as he’s a great story teller. His illustrations are involving places with twists and turns of humour and colour. We take a look at some of his work during the Olympics but also at a stop-motion film that documented the making of his soot mural. He was also kind enough to give us a look at a whole load of in-progress shots and tell us more about himself. Nice to see someone who loves Isograph pens as much as we do!
I am an illustrator and designer based in London.
The hand drawn illustrations that I create begin with traditional line drawing techniques using pencil, fine liner pens and ink, followed by colouring, combining and manipulating the elements digitally.
I enjoy trying to engage people in my drawings and hope they explore the little details that I put in them to reveal bits of humour, story, ideas and surprises.
Comic book illustrations (particularly the colouring and use of halftones) have had an influence on my work and I’m also interested in cartography and work on various illustrated map projects as well as regularly illustrating for The Guardian Sport section.
© Matt Johnstone, 2012
