Is It Time for a Textbook?

By guest author Jaleen GroveAs we all know, there is no illustration history textbook. Lots of instructors keep re-inventing the wheel, and because it's so much work to cover such a vast field, I fear they miss great swathes of research. There have been people threatening to write one... but there has been little public input on content, scope, format, and tone. So why not ask around? OK then!Whitney Sherman (teaches at MICA) and I have finally...

Read More

illustrators Magazine: Previewing Issue #4

Guest author Peter Richardson concludes this week's series describing how the newly launched illustrators, a quarterly magazine celebrating the greatest UK and European illustration of the past 150 years, came to be.David Ashford is our other consultant editor, and although he may be less familiar to followers of Today’s Inspiration, he is nonetheless as passionate about illustration, and is doggedly determined in his researches as David Roach. David...

Read More

illustrators Magazine: Previewing Issue #3

Guest author Peter Richardson continues this week's series describing how the newly launched illustrators, a quarterly magazine celebrating the greatest UK and European illustration of the past 150 years, came to be.The third issue of illustrators looks at the life and art of Fortunino Matania. In addition to being a supremely talented and driven artist, he was blessed with a photographic memory, and this was to prove a crucial asset in an era when...

Read More

illustrators Magazine: Previewing Issue #2

Guest author Peter Richardson continues this week's series describing how the newly launched illustrators, a quarterly magazine celebrating the greatest UK and European illustration of the past 150 years, came to be.The first task was to come up with a design format and a logo or masthead which would encapsulate our spirit and intent. We eventually refined what we felt was a memorable and eye-catching logo, whilst embodying the clean, authoritative,...

Read More

Introducing: illustrators Magazine

Guest author Peter Richardson invites us to look at some pages of the newly launched illustrators, a quarterly magazine celebrating the greatest UK and European illustration of the past 150 years.(Above: The cover of the first issue of illustrators - out now folks!)The publication has been a long time in reaching fruition: the idea stemmed from a series of discussions I had with publisher Geoff West, the owner of Book Palace Books. I had produced...

Read More

George Hughes (1907-1990)

George Hughes was born in New York. He studied at the Art Students League and the National Academy of Design. Early in his professional career he moved to Detroit to work as a "special designer," (whatever that might be). By the early '40s he'd returned to New York and joined the Charles E. Cooper studio. This 1945 advertising illustration below was likely done during his stint at Cooper's.Only a few years later, Hughes was being represented...

Read More

John McClelland (1919 - )

John McClelland was a mid-century illustrator whose work is perhaps somewhat less well known. But wonderful nonetheless!McClelland was born in Stone Mountain, Georgia in 1919. He began his education at Alabama Polytechnic Institute and finished it at the Art Career School of New York. His illustration work first appeared in Collier's in 1947. This work above and below, from various 1951 and 1952 issues of Woman's Day magazine, is representative...

Read More