With all the microblogging formats I’m on, like Twitter, Dribbble, Flickr and Tumblr, this blog has become more of a quarterly update. But what a quarter it’s been!

Early in the year I moved to a larger home-studio space in Toronto. I have lots of room now to spread things out, pin things up and make a mess.

I participated in the first Graphic Artists Guild iPortfolio for iPad (free in iTunes). I’ve had work in a few magazine’s iPad editions (including this month’s Wired and PopSci), but seeing five full pages of my work on that beautiful little screen is giving me a few ideas…

I’ve also worked with some great clients including Wired, Popular Science, Men’s Health, Bloomberg, Outside, AAA, IEEE and a few others I can’t talk about yet.

I’ll be adding more work to the portfolios in the near future, but stay tuned to my Dribbble and Flickr streams for the latest!

My interest in this application of technology and information should come as no surprise—technical illustration practically is augmented reality. It makes hidden or obfuscated information visible and intelligible. What might have been buried in a database or engineering drawing is made plain for anyone to see.

What’s especially exciting is seeing all the hardware and software that will make this a reality already out there, just waiting for a novel package. Siri on the new iPhone 4S is just a peek; speech-to-text is nothing new and Wolfram Alpha has been around for a couple of years.

Imagine the combination of the Microsoft Kinect-style 3D camera, stereoscopic 3D video visor, and wireless video streaming to the smartphone in your pocket for processing via AirPlay. All of a sudden, the future seems a lot closer. Your jetpack? It’s right here.

As for goggles-less AR, don’t worry, it’s coming.

It’s been a busy summer! Working with great clients on really interesting projects, teaching my robot intern how to draw, developing my editorial illustration portfolio, and now adding a little polish to this site.

In addition to the sliding showcase above, I’ve also added new work in my Technical Illustration and Infographics portfolios.

Take a look, and stay frosty!

I got an early start on my spring cleaning and today I debut two new portfolios.

The first is a selection of information graphics, or infographics, I’ve created for various clients. Infographics are any form of visual communication design, regardless of content or style. Since technical illustration might be considered a subset of this broadly defined discipline, I’ll be using it to refer to a flatter, more graphic method of working that places greater emphasis on quantitative information, processes & instructions, and less on surface & materiality. Don’t know what I mean? Check out the portfolio!

The second portfolio is my new alter ego of sorts, Textbook Example. All of my editorial illustrations have moved over there.

Textbook Example is a smart, playful look at science & technology issues and required reading for our increasingly complex world. The work combines a love for crusty cloth bound hardcovers, visions of the future from the past and state of the art bleeding edge technology.

Look forward to new work in all portfolios the coming weeks!

I’d like to wish everyone happy holidays and all the best of the season. I feel very fortunate to have worked with so many amazing people on so many groundbreaking projects in 2010, and I look forward to what 2011 may bring.

I’d also like to announce that I’ve relocated from drizzly Vancouver, British Columbia to my snowy hometown of Toronto, Ontario. Through the wintery magic of the internets I’m still available at info@jamesprovost.com or 416-669-5448, I’ll just be answering calls three hours earlier.

Thank you. All the best to you & yours.

It should come as no surprise that I’m a huge fan of Mythbusters. I like their “failure is always an option” maxim, meaning if you have an idea you should try it out, what’s the worst that can happen?

While watching the program one day, I noticed something weird about their forklift — it moved sideways. It didn’t just turn on a dime, but actually moved perpendicular to the direction of the wheels. Upon closer inspection, they looked more like worm gears than wheels. The answer was just a Google away: The Mythbusters’ forklift is equipped with Mecanum Wheels, also known as Omni Wheels or Ilon Wheels. These wheels work by rotating independently, depending on the desired direction of travel.

I had an idea that this might make for an interesting motion graphic (above), since still images really don’t do this technology justice. So I tried it out (what’s the worst that can happen?)

The first decorated trees were adorned with apples, strings of popcorn, candy canes and pastries in the shapes of stars, hearts and flowers. In 1847, Hans Greiner, an artisan in Lauscha, Germany, began producing more permanent decorations – glass baubles in the shape of fruit and nuts.

To do this, he heated a glass tube over a flame, then inserted the tube into a clay mold, blowing into the heated glass to expand it into the shape of the mold. After the glass cooled, a silver nitrate solution was swirled inside, the outside was hand tinted, and the bauble was finished with a cap and hook.

The ornament became vogue in the late 1840s, when a photo of Queen Victoria’s Christmas tree was shown in a London newspaper, decorated with lights and glass baubles from her husband Prince Albert’s native Germany. Today, holiday decorations are second only to gift-giving in seasonal sales. Ornaments are mass-produced world-wide, and about 20 small glass blowing studios still exist in Lauscha, Germany.

2009 was a great year for me. Thank you to everyone who was a part of it. I look forward to starting something new, solving problems and making things in 2010. Happy holidays!

Some fellow techies and I have started Technical Illustrators.org, a blog and community by and for technical illustrators. We feature portfolios of colleagues and share tutorials, techniques, resources, tips & tricks of the trade.

With more and more of the traditional in-house technical illustration jobs moving overseas, techies are finding themselves out on their own. In a time when communicating information clearly, accurately & concisely is paramount, there is huge demand for their skills however their trade is relatively unknown. It’s our goal with this site to unite these independent professionals and raise awareness of this highly communicative medium.

For more, visit us at Technical Illustrators.org!

In the meantime, check out my Technical Illustration Portfolio.

What does a technical illustrator do? What is technical illustration?
“Technical illustrators create highly accurate renderings of machinery, instruments, scientific subjects…technology, cartography, or virtually any subject that requires precision interpretation.”
- Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines, 11th Edition. pp. 196-197.

My goal is information & aesthetics: conveying information in a clear, concise, accurate and visually appealing way.

Tell me about yourself. How did you get into technical illustration?
Technical illustration feeds my innate curiosity about how things are made and how they work, my enthusiasm for computers and technology, and my urge to make images. In high school I took art, computer sciences and AutoCAD classes as well as dabbling with Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash in my free time, but didn’t really connect the dots until Drawing Systems in my first year of college.

Four years later, I earned a BA in Illustration, Technical and Scientific from Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning.

As a freelancer this isn’t necessary (but it helps), it all comes down to the quality of the work in your portfolio. However, some certifications and knowledge of specialized software may be required as an in-house technical illustrator.

Who do you work with? How do you find each other?
I work with art directors, creative directors, architects, engineers, scientists, entrepreneurs-anyone who needs information communicated visually.

My website is my primary means of advertising what I do. It includes my illustration portfolio, motion graphics portfolio, information about the service I provide and of course contact information. It is the hub of my online presence, and built so people can find me via search engines. I keep it constantly updated with fresh work and relevant news, in a blog format so people can subscribe if they want to stay updated. I also send out a quarterly email newsletter for those who prefer it.

I use a number of social networking sites, such as Twitter, Flickr and LinkedIn. I also have portfolios and listings at various illustration-related sites such as IllustrationMundo and Behance. These let me connect with friends, colleagues, clients and prospects.

What is your process? How do you do what you do?
A brief explanation can be found here. I haven’t done any tutorials at this time.

What software do you use?
Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop & Flash, currently learning Cinema 4D – never stop learning!

What was the most challenging project that you completed?
Every project is a unique problem to solve, but the most challenging projects are the ones where references and resources are limited. I really need to understand what I’m illustrating before I can start, and then have enough information to accurately depict it.

Do clients occasionally request illustrations that are technically impossible or too difficult?
If something is technically impossible, like showing both the top and bottom of something in one drawing for example, I explain the problem to the client and we work out a compromise – like splitting it into two illustrations. If something is too difficult to draw, it’s usually because I don’t have enough reference material to really understand what I’m drawing, so I request more information from the client. It’s never been a problem.

Are you able to support yourself solely with illustration? Has the economy affected you?
Yes, I am a full-time freelance technical illustrator.

One of my instructors at Sheridan, the ever-fervent Larry Read, called technical illustration a “bullet proof career” for the diversity of subjects it covers. In periods of high growth one could illustrate consumer products, cars and houses. In periods of low growth, educational & training materials, health & medical products and entertainment & video games.

Being a solo freelancer helps too: low overhead, tax savings, constantly reinvesting in yourself and the business.

Hope that helps answer some of your questions! Thanks to Andy, Chris & Chad for the questions!