Bristol-based illustrator Rob Hodgson treats art as an early form of communication. “I think drawing comes before words,” he once remarked in an interview with Artflakes, “and I’m still really interested in that level of communication.”
His ear tuned to the formative language of art, he grew up to study illustration professionally. “At university, I learned so much,” he recalls. “I read as much as I could and soaked it all up. I lived with diverse image-makers – comics artists, filmmakers, painters. It’s so healthy to be around a lot of people, otherwise, I’d get too serious and fall down a hole.”
But after being formally trained, he seems to have come back full circle, committing himself to a more naive style of illustration that speaks to our inner child. “I make pictures in quite a traditional sense,” he says. “I am concerned with elements of design in an image – shape, line, color, and composition. Early 20thC ideas. I like to write and draw.”
Approaching his work with a curiosity of techniques, he is equally to be found rummaging around in the trash for unlikely materials, as he is buried in a computer working on new digital processes. You’ll want to follow his artistic journey on Instagram.
