Five Questions with Lecturer Lowell Isaac

Thursday, February 22, 2018

If you've ever wondered about the work and professional lives of Herron's professors, then look no further. Today we're introducing "Five Questions," a new series of Herron Stories where we ask various faculty members for sage advice and insights about their chosen creative disciplines.

Our first "Five Questions" spotlights Lowell Isaac, a Herron alumnus (B.F.A. '09) and lecturer in drawing and illustration, who is a prolific master of ink with a background in storyboard and concept art as well as animation.

HERRON: In what ways has teaching a new generation of illustrators influenced your own studio practice?

ISAAC: Being around young artists definitely energizes me. I find that being an artist can be a very isolating occupation, so any excuse we can find to clump together and share our experiences makes us stronger. Talking and sketching with students gets my heart beating, and I carry that home with me. I encourage students to form bonds during class, to take out their ear-buds and talk to each other because this community fuels us creatively and professionally. I've come to see what an important part of art education that is.

Illustration from Lowell Isaac's book "Mr. Pipsy." Lowell Isaac

HERRON: How do you deal with creative blocks?

ISAAC: I think there are different kinds of artists, and I'm not really the kind that thinks about creative blocks. That's partly why I always liked the idea of being an illustrator. I'm a work-horse. I clock-in, figuratively speaking, and do a day's work. I know if I'm not working it's because I'm being lazy, and feeling bad about that can sometimes be a good motivator.

The truth is that I have more ideas recorded in sketchbooks (I'm at number 66 now) than I can ever use, and I come up with more every day. However, that can make it hard to sit down with one idea and really take the time to follow it to completion. These are my versions of creative blocks, and there is no easy solution I've found other than listening to that little General Patton voice in your head that says, "NOW is the time to work on this, you lazy [expletive]!"

Excerpt from Lowell Isaac's comic in the anthology "Edgar Rice Burrough's Jungle Tales of Tarzan," published by Sequential Pulp and Dark Horse Comics. Lowell Isaac

HERRON: You describe your style as "drawing cinematically." Can you elaborate on that a little bit?

ISAAC: I just think in terms of movies. I was raised in a "fine art" family, but film, animation, and comics have always grabbed my attention. Making a film requires so much logistical work — raising money, organizing people, scheduling times to shoot, and using complicated machines that require electricity to operate. It takes a certain amount of self-abuse to make movies. I'm too nice to myself to make movies, honestly. Every storytelling medium is different, but when you can create something at home, by yourself, and at the cost of some ink and Bristol board, it's a pretty magical thing. There is nothing stopping you.

So, my dream project is right there anytime I feel that I can tackle it. I've been saying for a while that I'd like to do a big black and white graphic novel, about an inch's worth of pages. Now that I've said it here maybe I'll feel more urgency to work on it.

HERRON: With new forms and frontiers of storytelling, visual narrative is experiencing a kind of golden age. How has illustration changed?

ISAAC: What's interesting to me is that the means of production are really in artists' hands now. I've worked with some comics publishers, but most of my experience is with the self-publishing company AuthorHouse, where I illustrated over 600 books. If you want to make a book or a movie, there is not much stopping you from doing it, promoting it, and making it available to the public.

All of my best clients found me through social media and I know I'm not alone. As I see it, the downside of everyone becoming a producer is that not everyone makes good work or seeks it out. But that's where Herron comes in. Education is the way to influence the producers and consumers of the future and to encourage them to find their own path for navigating and surviving in this new age, and to hopefully make it a golden one.

I'm a fairly old-fashioned guy in a lot of ways. I'm in love with the history of illustration and I was privileged to go to a graduate school taught by several generations of amazing illustrators, and to learn first-hand how the business has evolved since the 1950s. It is easy to get vicariously nostalgic about a time when illustrators called the shots because every billboard, magazine, poster, etc. was covered with beautiful drawings and paintings.

It was a prettier world, in my opinion, but I am hopeful. The eye will always be drawn to good art and design, and people seem increasingly interested in personal, hand-made things amid the distance that technology has created.

Cover for the first issue of "Lux" by Dwayne Stewart. Lowell Isaac

We as educators have the opportunity to influence the culture through our work with young creators. There's no reason, with all this freedom and access, that there shouldn't be more great visible art in the everyday world, rather than less.

HERRON: Outside the classroom, do you have any hidden talents?

ISAAC: I do like cooking. My wife is beginning to convince me I'm pretty good at it. I don't do anything too complicated. I like taking really good ingredients and then carefully avoid ruining them. The right temperature, with a little salt and olive oil, is pretty much how to cook anything. I don't follow recipes. If I'm cooking something new I'll generally read three recipes so that I understand what needs to happen and then I wing it. This is how I approach pretty much everything.

If I don't give myself the opportunity to wing it, I won't have any fun and the outcome will not be interesting. Of course, this can also lead to disasters, but that can be good. If you pay attention to what created the disaster, you'll learn something and the next attempt will be better.

Stay current with Lowell Isaac's activities through his website or Instagram.

Herron School of Art + Design

Five Questions with Lecturer Lowell Isaac

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