Abstract

As illustrators we study theory to strengthen our practice in order to create better illustrations by understanding the ways that meaning is created and communicated to others. To understand the context for what we are doing we may wish to conduct research. This can help us find new knowledge and improve the paradigms of existing knowledge. The purpose of this is to help to make original and meaningful work that advances the knowledge of the society and our understanding of our existence in the world. According to the dictionary definition, theory is “a supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something”. Theory in illustration, as in any other discipline, provides practitioners with ways to understand how things are “supposed” to work. For example, by understanding color theory, the theories that inform creativity, human perception, cognitive processing of images, or how the narrative structures in comic books work or how drawing can be understood as a visual language. Theory provides a means of understanding the everyday phenomena of the world around us, its rules, and the cultural systems we work in. This knowledge will have a significant impact on the way we think about and enact our practice to improve the things we create. In academic terms, it changes our ontology, our view of reality and of the world in which we live. René Descartes's proposition “I think therefore I am” asserts that we are thinking, imaginative creatures capable of developing knowledge and applying our imagination.