Selfportrait
Kevin Hulsey
My name is Kevin Hulsey. I was born in Los Angeles California in 1955. I moved to Carmel California in 1991 where I live with my wife, Stephanie. My company, KHI, Inc. has been producing technical illustration for the advertising industry since 1981.
Although largely self taught, I do have a background in architectural drafting from working in set design for the motion picture industry.
I love drawing. I did my first cutaway at age 9, of a submarine, which I keep framed in my studio. I think this career was predestined for me. I have always been interested in how things work. Technical illustration marries my love of drawing with my interest in all things mechanical, especially cars and motorcycles.
I started out using pencil, pen & ink, and airbrush to create my illustrations. In 1997 I went all digital. All of my digital images are created using Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. Although It may seem as if it would be easier to do these illustrations digitally, it actually takes longer than it did with airbrush. In the old days, the rule of thumb was to work at around 300% of the largest reproduction size. Using a computer, this calculation is somewhat meaningless and I have a tendency to work on a much smaller scale - at 1000% or more. Although this makes for a much more detailed and accurate piece, it takes significantly longer to produce.
Unlike other forms of commercial art, technical illustration is the least interpretive and most straight forward type of illustration. With technical illustration, it is not so much a creative process as it is a mechanical process. The creative part is in pre-visualizing the object and it's internal parts as a 3 dimensional drawing. From there, it is a matter of mapping out a perspective grid and filling it in. The other creative element is in deciding where to break away or how much to fade away the surface in order to see the internal workings. With technical illustration, once you have decided on an angle of view, you either draw it correctly or not.
In my career, discipline and perseverance are worth more than talent in the long run. It takes a long time to create one of these illustrations, so patience is the key to success.
