Raster or vector?

or both?

I have been getting more and more into using the textured raster brushes in Fresco recently.

I have a fairly established flat vector style.

some of the illustrations from List Happy

I embraced this for quite a while and loved drawing in a loose hand-drawn style in Fresco but spitting out flat vectors that could be resized up and down with no issues. And I also used vector for most of my pattern design.

I loved doing full rooms in vector.

And I genuinely still love these pieces. I love how it’s mostly crazy colour that brings the interest, with a certain amount texture brought through pattern and mark making (but still vector).

But then I started playing with brushes, and all the fun brushes are raster, not vector.

I’m particularly finding raster brushes exciting for hand-lettering. I can get much more of an organic feel with them and, when using vector for hand-lettering, I almost always end up erasing and tidying after drawing (writing? which is it?).

So, I am wondering… is it OK to keep using and exploring both? Will clients be able to say which they would prefer (either from the look or in terms of what they need to use the work for)? Or should I be sticking to one of them only? And if I need to stick to one only, which one?

And then the introspective journaling self-therapy part of me is asking whether jumping into exploring raster more is something I have done because I reached a point of burgeoning success with the vectors. In the same way that I seemingly jumped away from pattern design as soon as I started making a decent amount of money from it. In the same way, now I look back at it, that I jumped away from blogging as soon as I started making a decent amount of money from it (I jumped into pattern design, so not really complaining there). Is writing Substack my new thing and is it going to pull me away from illustration and pattern design? (I really hope not. I am trying to make it work in a way that actually sustains and grows the illustration career, rather than hinders it.)

Do I actually just want to explore lots of things, in the same way I dip in and out of learning different languages (I’ve almost finished the Portuguese course on Duolingo and excited to think about what language to try next. Shall I stick with my comfort zone romance languages, go a bit further afield in Europe, or pick something very different like Korean or Mandarin?), and have a multitude of hobbies and should I let go of the need to make this a full-time career?

If you’re an illustrator (or pattern designer) reading this, do you mostly use vector or mostly use raster? Do you chop and change and not worry about it? Do you find clients what one in particular? Do you feel that the rasterness or vectorness is inherent in your style or just provides variety in the same way a traditional artist might use different media, but still retain their underlying style?

And if you’re one of the non-illustrator readers (thank you, by the way - I genuinely love the variety of people who seem to get something out of what I write here, which I know can be all over the place sometimes), do you see any differences in the above? Do you have a preference? Maybe it all looks very similar and it’s not obvious that one is vector and one raster (maybe those two words are like a whole other language to you, that you don’t understand!)?

And if there are any art directors reading, or others who commission illustration, I’d love for you to weigh in, too. Do you think illustrators need to choose between vector and raster in order to be consistent, or are you happy to see a mixture in a portfolio and specify which you want for a particular project? Are there particular projects where you need one or the other?

Oh, and all of you… do you think raster looks more human and that’s what is drawing me (and others - I have seen other people moving from mostly vector to starting to explore raster more) to it? To show, and to feel, more human in the face of the AI craze?

Leave a comment with your thoughts. Or, if you like polls (I may be becoming addicted to polls)…

Coming up this week over on The Illustrated Plant Kitchen is August’s illustrated printable recipe, for paid subscribers. (And a little reminder that subscriptions there are half price until the end of August - lock in a lifetime low price now!)

Last week’s poll… Furniture won. So that’s where I’ll start. I won’t jump immediately into the daily drawings - I’ll draw up a list (I usually like to have two or three options for each letter, wherever possible; some letters are hard, though) and gather some reference material. But, once I do start, I’ll probably share them over on the Daily(ish) ponderings section (the one you have to choose to subscribe to, rather than it automatically spamming your inbox every day - if you need a reminder how to specify which bits you do and don’t subscribe to you can find it at the bottom of this post).

And the previous poll… Illustrated Life was the winner, closely followed by The Wandering Illustrator. I am fairly certain that I am going to go for Illustrated Life, so expect to see the name of this publication, and probably some of the graphics, change before the end of August. I’m also going to tidy up some other things, for example, write a proper About page that explains what I write about here. And maybe I’ll plan a more structured schedule, but maybe not, because I do really enjoy writing what I feel like writing on the day (or day before, as I usually - not this week - write on a Saturday and schedule for the Sunday).

Happy Sunday everyone and see you next week!