John Devolle is an illustrator and author, currently living and working in Dublin, Ireland. Over the past 15 years he has worked for various clients, including magazines such as GQ, Monocle, and The Financial Times, and organisations such as The Houses of Parliament and The British Library, where he has turned complex ideas into simpler and more engaging visuals.
After initially studying Fine Art at the University of Westminster, where he got to experiment with a number of mediums including painting, sculpture, photography, and music, John ended up as a graphic designer for a number of years whilst he pursued his other passion of music, playing in various bands. He tells us; “During this time I had always harboured ambitions to be an illustrator without actually doing anything about it but sometime in around 2009 I started submitting my own illustrations to art directors mostly for magazines and managed to get my first few illustration ‘gigs’.” After a year or so of working as an illustrator as a ‘side-hustle’, he finally made the switch to working in illustration full time in 2010. More recently, John has been writing and illustrating his own series of kids books about science: ATOMS, PLANETS, GERMS and BRAINS (so far) which have been translated into multiple languages.
A current source of inspiration for John’s illustrations comes from medieval drawings and prints. He comments; “I like the weird, two dimensional aspect, or disregard for perspective. I don’t worry about it too much in my work and I’m attracted to art that has a similar approach.” It is for this reason that John often finds himself going back to artists like Picasso, Matisse, Jean Dubuffet, and David Hockney for inspiration. Drawing and painting is part of John’s daily practice, thus he always has his sketchbook to hand. Even though my finished work is usually drawn digitally in Adobe Illustrator, it is often informed by a random doodle or sketch. John states; “I think its really important (at least for my practice) to draw / paint / make things for the sake of it, not having any end point in mind is a really good way to end up somewhere interesting.”
John works from a desk in his shared studio, The Chocolate Factory, in Dublin. He describes; “It’s an amazing place filled with all sorts of creative people, but it is VERY cold in the winter!” Still relatively new to Dublin having only been there for a couple of years, (prior to this he had lived in London for over 25 years) John is focusing on getting to know people and other creative types through his studio as well as Illustrators Ireland. “I find it really helps my practice to be around other people and the life of an illustrator is usually a solitary one, so it’s nice to have the social side of it too,” comments the illustrator.
This year, he is working on another science book for kids, and is hoping to work more on painting and making ‘things’ – he might even put on an art show!
www.johndevolle.co.uk
@johndevolle
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