Welcome to Illustration 84

Another year has slipped away, and the dark days are upon us as the clocks go backward.  Fortunately, we have the latest Illustration to cheer things up, breaking the gloom with some colourful and interesting images.

The current issue brings together some outstanding practitioners and their work. We open with Ian Archie Beck, who writes in fascinating detail about the processes involved in creating his delightful book-covers, which establish a text’s tone and character even before the pages are turned. In an extended interview, Sue Scullard also reflects on ways of working as she explains her vivid imagery of jostling figures, tempestuous landscapes, dignified buildings and serene gardens.   These are artists at their most creative, but of course none of this work would appear without the work of publishers. Tim Mainstone describes the challenges of running a small press, and how he has brought the images of Ravilious, Bawden, Minton and Boucher back into the limelight in his beautifully printed books. Another connoisseur, Wilfried Onzea, takes up the interest in fine publications in his comments on Aldin’s Pickwick, and Violeta Encarnación writes of working for the Folio Society and its new edition of   The Life of Pi. Violeta’s dynamic designs are a revelation – the work of a really outstanding artist at the top of her game. What of the rest? We have plenty of other material to complement the work of current practitioners, with articles on illustrations for the surreal Franz Kafka, the boys’ own adventures of Wyeth, the satirical cartoons of Moreland and the long forgotten but radical art of Louis Legrand. And as usual we have news, reviews, information and a glimpse at the up-and-coming talent of a student of illustration, Jodie Dean

News and Reviews

A round-up of interesting new and forthcoming exhibitions and books, along with information on events.

Ian Archie Beck
Ian Beck, whose articles have regularly appeared in Illustration, is a well-known book-artist and record cover designer. His versatility extends to book covers as well. Ian’s work for children is lyrical and imaginative – the product of an artist who can see the world from a child’s eye perspective. He takes this opportunity to explain how he drew inspiration from his own family experiences.

Sue Scullard

Sue is a long-established wood engraver who has worked diverse commissions. Her intense images are both sensitive and dynamic, dramatic and contemplative. All are the result of her detailed reflections on the workings of design and its effects. In a longer than usual interview, Sue explains how she creates her memorable illustrations and prints.

The Mainstone Press

“Of making many books there is no end.” Independent presses are responsible for some of the most beautiful books, but making them is an arduous, challenging, but ultimately satisfying quest. Tim Mainstone writes entertainingly about how he came to publishing and the many activities involved in bringing a book from idea to material reality.

Cecil Aldin’s The Pickwick Papers

Sometimes a book just shouts out loud: buy me. You have to have it. One such book for the collector Wilfried Onzea was Aldin’s illustrated version of Dickens’s The Pickwick Papers. Aldin’s designs embody the author’s rumbustious humour in vivid colour, a big change from Phiz’s earlier black and white. Wilfried tells us about one of his favourite acquisitions.

The Life of Pi

Yann Martel’s weird story positively demands to be illustrated, and Violeta Encarnación brings it vividly to life in her designs for the Folio Society re-issue. Violeta explains her background in art and how she approached her interpretation of this strange, and frequently challenging, text.

Illustrations to Kafka

Kafka’s life and work have long been the subject of visual interpretation as artists have probed his surreal and disorientating view of an alienated world. A recent exhibition in Jerusalem presented many of these pictorial readings. Mordechai Beck provides a detailed and insightful account of the prize exhibits.

N. C. Wyeth

Wyeth was a great illustrator of adventure stories and excelled at breathing new life into classics such as  Robinson Crusoe and  Treasure Island. Wyeth’s cinematic tableaux are full of dynamic action and intricate detail, making the authors’ imagined worlds seem immediate and sometimes overpowering. Warren Clements analyses the work of an artist who deserves to be better known on this side of the Atlantic.

Arthur Moreland

Moreland’s satirical commentaries embraced home and foreign affairs and were particularly effective in mocking pomposity and the values of the “Hun” in the First World War. Now rarely remembered, Moreland was a great comic talent of his time. Mark Bryant offers a detailed reconsideration.

Louis Legrand

Everyone remembers Toulouse-Lautrec, but Legrand was mapping the same territory before his more famous contemporary. Always a sensitive observer of society and social mores, Legrand provided an insightful and sometimes surprising portrait of nineteenth-century France. In his continuing series, Brian McAvera sets the record straight.

New Talent

Jodie Dean, an undergraduate at the University of Gloucestershire, is an intriguing new talent. Jodie explains her ideas and ambitions.

Resources

Look and Learn

Information about the latest contributions along with details of important resources.

Contributors

Ian Archie Beck is an illustrator, author and painter. He has illustrated some hundred and forty books as well as writing novels for children and young adults. In 1973 he illustrated the famous cover of Elton John’s seminal album, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. In April 2022 he published a collection of watercolour paintings of his area of south west London in lockdown titled The Light in Suburbia.

Sue Scullard is an illustrator and printmaker who started wood engraving while studying at the Royal College of Art. She has worked as a freelance illustrator for 45 years, both as an engraver and in ink and watercolour, but in recent years has concentrated on creating independent wood engravings of subjects which inspire her for exhibition and display. 

Tim Mainstone is an art historian and founder of The Mainstone Press, an independent publisher based in London. Since 2006, the press has focused on producing books about artists from the early 20th century, including Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden. Tim is passionate about making art history accessible and enjoyable for everyone.

Wilfried Onzea is a book collector and former librarian of the Antwerp City Library. He was a founding member of Flemish bibliophile society, Literarte, and taught the history of the private press movement at the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp. He is the author of several books and articles on books and bibliography.

Violeta Encarnación is a Cuban-American artist based in New York City known for her vibrant, storytelling-driven visuals across both traditional and digital media. Her award-winning work often explores our connection to nature and to each other, inviting viewers to reflect on these relationships. She has created illustrations for The New York Times, Sports Illustrated Kids, and Penguin Random House, among others.

Mordechai Beck is a printmaker, artist and writer born in the UK, but based in Israel. His prints have been purchased by MOMA, the Library of Congress, the universities of Yale, Berkeley and others. His articles appear regularly in The Jewish Chronicle and in The Guardian, Print Quarterly and Letter Arts Review. His fi ction has been published in the Literary Review, The Jewish Quarterly and elsewhere.

Warren Clements was for many years a writer and editor with The Globe and Mail newspaper in Toronto. He now publishes books through a small Canada-only imprint, Nestlings Press, specializing in humour and illustration.

Brian McAvera is a playwright, art critic, curator and, occasionally, an art historian. His best-known plays are the cycle Picasso’s Women, which have been translated for productions into over 20 languages. His most recent book is a critical study of the Irish artist, Graham Gingles (“Graham Gingles Boxed In,” Cyphers, Secrecy And Sensuality, F. E. McWilliam Gallery, 2022). Brian is an avid collector of French nineteenth century illustrated books.

Dr Mark Bryant was an editor in literary and academic book publishing before becoming a writer, journalist, lecturer and curator. He has written for the Independent, History Today, British Journalism Review, Military History Monthly and other publications. His books include the Dictionary of 20th Century British Cartoonists and Caricaturists, and he has contributed articles to Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. He is a former trustee of the Cartoon Museum, London.