Ron Monnier

Illustrator

Love your work

It’s my belief that if you love your work, you’ll love your life. Illustration, not only is my profession, it’s my main passion
too.

I knew what I wanted to be from age 7 and I knew then that I could go anywhere I’d liked armed with a pencil and my
imagination.

Nothing really has changed. I still draw on my imagination but my palette has expanded to include electronic paintbrushes. I have been illustrating for a number of years for magazines like TIME, Rolling Stone, The Bulletin with Newsweek and Reader’s Digest plus various publishers such as Pan Macmillan and advertising agencies.

I love to hoard bits and pieces of ephemera and my technique is to use an unusual mix of textures, collage and hand-painted images and throw them all into the blender. However, the most essential ingredient is a good idea. I provide conceptual illustrations for: advertising, promotions, books, magazines and web. Work includes: portraits and caricatures (editorial/political), children’s literature, fine art, toys and games. Artistic styles: mixed media (watercolour, acrylic, pencil, collage, ephemera and digital).

I’d love your work anytime – email: rmonnier@bigpond.net.au

How did it begin?

I began my escape as soon as I could hold a pencil. I fell in love with the adventures that art could offer and the endless
opportunities of creating things and places never seen before. I love to express what I’m feeling in pictures and I also enjoy mixing typographical messages in there as well to add more dimension to the work – this comes from my extensive advertising background as an art and creative director.

After studying Commercial Illustration I began cutting my teeth in pasting up ads for retail and rendering line and wash
illustrations of bedroom suites and other furniture. Working in a trade house for typesetting, I found this a great way of
learning the technical side of commercial art and design. I also worked on packaging projects illustrating each colour
by hand with India inks on overlays.

This experience has given me a sound understanding on how printing processes work and I still use this knowledge
when composing multi-layered illustrations in Photoshop and Illustrator.

A tradition amongst illustrators.

I use a variety of traditional mediums such as pencil, Cray-Pas, line and wash, acrylic paint, gouache, water colours,
spray paint and collage. I enjoy painting on stretched canvas, masonite, ply and wood, and found backgrounds
such as old refrigerator boxes – I like the existing printed type on these boxes and make this part of the design.
The type of work that I do on these backgrounds is “stream of consciousness”. I like having fun with these as they
are usually personal ideas that I like to express. I use quite a bit of traditional art for my commercial illustrations
– sometimes as backgrounds or as the main feature mixed in with scanned pieces of ephemera, old photographs and
line engravings. Typographically I hand-letter most of my messages or use distressed fonts.

I have done traditional art all my life. I found it a very satisfying release when working within the tight deadlines of
publishing and advertising. And I have also managed to mix this art into advertising and illustration projects when it was
relevant.

Using my digits.

I began as a digital illustrator about 12 years ago. I have my own business – Powerhouse Creative and I used the
Mac at the beginning as a finished art tool and then slowly learnt how to use Illustrator and Photoshop for a mixed
media approach to my work. Thereby getting the best of both worlds – traditional brush illustration mixed with a digital
palette.

Why mixing is important to me.

I just love the juxtaposition of real and found ephemera, old photos, coloured paper, pencil drawn objects and then throwing them all into a Macintosh blender. The journey from my initial sketch to the end result is a road trip I really enjoy.