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As the art director of the Inside the Times section, one of my duties every month is hiring an artist to draw a series of small illustrations that appear daily on the top of Page A3.
The illustrations don’t pair with articles, so aside from fixed size limitations, the only stipulation is that each “spot,” or small, free-floating illustration, features a newspaper in some way. Sometimes wholesome, often witty and whimsical and occasionally wacky (in the best kind of way), the spots inject personality into the page. Usually, the artist brings in a theme — vegetables reading the paper, characters made of thumbprints — that ties the monthlong series together. No matter the concept, the spots offer special moments of surprise and delight for our readers.
We introduced the spot illustration in early 2017, when Pages A2 and A3, which previously acted as a table of contents, became a destination for readers to learn about our journalism. (We refreshed the spread again in 2022.) The first illustration, by Leon Edler, showed a person walking into a gust of wind, his hat flying off, his umbrella turning inside out and a newspaper blowing over his face.
For much of the first year of the new pages, the artist Jason Polan provided the illustrations. His distinctive, intuitive line drawings included slice-of-life scenes and more silly spots, like a newspaper obscured by a quadruple-decker hamburger. Mr. Polan, who died at 37 in 2020, set the tone for what was possible with the space.
Since 2018, we’ve hired a new illustrator every month, and each brings a distinct style. For example: In March 2023, John Broadley depicted moments from history; that June, during Gizem Vural’s tenure, expressionistic cats played at the top of the page; and last August, Jonathan Djob Nkondo ushered in an abstract, geometric style.
When considering illustrators for the job, I look for someone whose style can provide contrast from that of the previous month’s artist. I typically reach out to an artist two to four weeks in advance. I’ll ask that the artist pitch a theme and hope that it’s robust enough to be extended over a series of 30 or so drawings.
Bahij Jaroudi, who did last month’s spot illustrations, used fine and frantic line work to create a series of humorous characters. So this month, I wanted to feature an artist whose style was darker and bolder.
Since the spots do not respond to any text and don’t need to solve any conceptual problem, the editing process tends to be lighter than that of the larger illustrations that appear on our pages. The artist submits rough sketches, and unless the content is inappropriate, I generally keep my notes to a minimum. The spot illustrations are small, so one area I’m particularly concerned with is legibility.
I like to think of the spot series as a showcase of the artists themselves, and everyone interprets the assignment in their own way. There have been more than 2,500 spots, and yet each one has managed to bring something new.
It’s a rare opportunity for an artist to have so much creative freedom. In June 2021, I got the chance to do a series myself, and learned firsthand how challenging, yet creatively fulfilling, drawing 30 little illustrations could be.
Now as the art director of Inside the Times, one of my favorite parts of the job is sharing that experience with other illustrators.
This Month’s Illustrator Explains Her Process
This month’s spot illustrator is Sophy Hollington, an artist from Brighton, England. After sketching her ideas on an iPad, Sophy creates her illustrations through a relief printmaking process called linocut. She carves her scenes in linoleum blocks, then applies a coat of ink to the block. Next, she presses a sheet of paper on the block, transferring the image to the page. I asked Sophy to shed light on her process. Our edited email exchange follows.
How long does it take you to complete a single spot illustration?
To carve one spot illustration in this series took about 20 minutes. Printing and scanning takes about 30 minutes, including getting out and putting away all the required gear. Editing takes about 5 minutes.
Why is it important to you to work this way, as opposed to achieving something similar digitally?
It’s something I’m always reckoning with to be honest … as it is a limiting and time-consuming process that feels more so as digital technology progresses. However, whenever I’ve tried other media, I find I’m not able to recreate the beautiful irregularity that this kind of printmaking creates. I think the limitations of using a medium like this also force my brain to work that much harder to figure out how to represent certain objects and portray scenes or narratives in a way that feel clear and concise. Put simply, it has completely shaped the visual language I use, and I get a huge sense of satisfaction from using an analog medium. I love that all of my work exists in the real world as both a carved object and a print.
What was the inspiration for your series?
I wanted to take the paper out of the domestic, everyday setting and in to another, slightly spooky and archaic world that also felt familiar and humorous.
You already impose several limitations on your work. Was incorporating the newspaper a welcome addition? Was there anything you found challenging about it?
I felt quite intimidated at the prospect of carving so many newspapers, which are honestly one of my least favorite things to represent in lino (fiddly, foldy, small lines etc.). Saying that, it got a lot easier as I progressed, and I really enjoyed the challenge of trying to find more unusual ways for the paper to be interacting with the illustration. Given that the rest of the spot could be about anything at all, it actually felt like one of the more liberating commissions I’ve ever worked on.
