Aug 26, 2017
Tobatron | Illustration | Central Illustration Agency
seen from Canada
seen from Russia
seen from Germany
seen from Lithuania
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Malaysia
seen from Malaysia
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
Tobatron | Illustration | Central Illustration Agency
A4 manual style instructions. HP DeskJet. Font style and text vs image. Interpretation and understanding. Messages and communication. https://centralillustration.com/illustrators/tobatron
Tobatron | Illustrator | Central Illustration Agency
How To Suitcase by Tobatron
London! Monday 17th November.
We got to London 1pm, got lost in the hotel trying to find our room, threw our stuff down and then left again to get the tube to Bethnal Green. As our group's visit was quite far out, we decided to just make sure we were in the vicinity and find something arty when we got there, before our visit at 5pm. It was rumoured that the V&A museum was near the Bethnal Green station.. well, a V&A museum is round there. Turns out the proper one is on the other side of London, but we looked around the Museum of Childhood anyway. It was actually quite bizarre; we were expecting a museum with interactive things for children, but it wasn't. It was literally a museum full of toys and other childhood memorabilia through the ages. It was interesting but we'd done it in about half an hour.
We met up with our group and got thoroughly soaked in the rain, and then proceeded to get more soaked as we walked for 20 minutes into the rough-looking depths of Bethnal Green. You can imagine our dismay when Anthony turns round and says "Hang on, I think I'm lost". Happily, though, we'd only gone a few yards past illustrator Toby Leigh's studio and he met us outside to let us in. I'm not sure what I was expecting a shared studio to look like really. I suppose i expected it to be big and airy with plenty of space, like ours at university. It wasn't, though. He literally just had a desk and a wall. He shared with several other people, only one of which was an illustrator, the others ranged in occupation from architects to fashion designers. It was nice; I'd have liked to be in a place like that. I don't think I'd like to be surrounded by illustrators who all have their opinions on whether I'm drawing a nose right or wrong. People from different subjects give you new ideas as well and keep you open to different ways of thinking about things and approaching things.
We were only in his studio about ten minutes, but the best part of the night was when we went to the pub and just sat drinking and chatting to a real live professional illustrator. I felt like i was at a job interview, one word wrong and my career was over. He was lovely though, he and his fellow illustrator just chatted to us about current affairs and whether digital had taken over from film and stuff like that. Leigh has two different personas in the world of illustration; he has Tobatron, which specialises in more info-graphic type illustration, and his original Toby Leigh, which is much more stylised and fun.
The main things I took from Leigh were his advice on agencies; his two different illustrative styles are represented by two different agencies, because he found that one agency preferred to promote one of his styles more than the other. This is important for me in case I take my digital/photographic work any further in the future. I'll definitely still be doing the drawing. Also his opinion that you don't have to be living in London to be an illustrator. This was a major concern for me because London is the last place on earth i would ever want to move, and illustration is the only career I would ever want to go into!
Tobatron Totes sneak into the V&A!
We've just heard that Tobatron's 2012 bags are going into V&A's permanent collection! Whoop!
Toby's totes (made in collaboration with accessories designer Elaine Burke) were issued alongside a viral you tube campaign during last years Olympics and sold out instantly. Folk went crazy for the cheeky screenprints and unlike the majority of Olympic souvenirage all profits went to Khama, a working women’s charity based in Malawi.
The limited edition charity bags cost £15 each and are available at thatbigeventinlondon.co.uk. To find out more about the V&A's permanent collection see www.vam.ac.uk