Rohan Eason — Pen and Ink Illustrator, London

London based Illustrator Rohan Eason works predominantly in pen and ink. He is best known for his stark black and white imagery, which plays heavily on the roles of composition and view point, and the balance between intricate detail and dark or light space. His work has become widely used in book illustration and more recently in advertising, where his uniquely hand crafted style stands apart from the more typically used digital art forms. Although art has run very clearly through his family and his childhood, it was only after leaving university and a painting degree that he decided to pursue illustration as his preferred discipline. Rohan loved the work of Aubrey Beardsley and Arthur Rackham as a boy, and this devotion to and pursuit of the beautifully hand drawn line followed him into adulthood. His portfolio now bursts with the magical and fantastical scenes from dreams to nightmares, from real life to imagined creations, but all with the same single grounding fact, that of beauty and balance.

Training

After completing a Foundation in Art, in the city of Lincoln, he moved to London and completed a BA HONS Fine Art Degree in Printmaking and Book Arts, while simultaneously working and gaining critique on his Paintings in the studios of Kingston University.

Approach

Everything begins with sketches, there are no limits to how many ways something can be approached, but it is always key to find the right path before the final stages can begin. After choosing viewpoints and compositional elements, and making sure the narrative is accurate and concise Rohan moves onto ink. He often plays upon his love of films to bring the viewer to a new way of looking at an ordinary scene. Although he began with a very monochrome palette, in the last few years he has challenged himself with a colour palette of watercolour paint. This has created a new dimension to his work, and opened up a whole new world of possibilities.

Style

Rohan's style has often been categorized as classical, and he understands that his tools are anything but modern, but his skill is in bringing the beauty of the hand crafted illustration into the present day. Through clever use of viewpoint and composition his work feels fresh and current, while retaining elements of the past that bring a sense of clarity and assuredness to the final piece.

Client list

DDB Deutschland Volkswagen Pegasus Life Macmillan Penguin Group Candlewick Press Orion Random House Pushkin Press Oxford University Press Marlborough Press One Peace Books Royal Shakespeare Company The Spectator Rapha Ltd