1.0 Who’s out there and what are they doing?

The purpose of this exercise was to identify a range of illustrators whose work or ideas you find interesting.

Key words from the brief:

  • What do these illustrators tell you about current illustration practices?
  • Where do they fit within the different areas of illustration practice?

Online reference

Illustrator index

The table below contains a growing index of artists and illustrators that I’ve researched and/or referenced at some point during the course.

The list is an extract from a spreadsheet that contains more information about the illustrator, their favoured media and methods and commentary.

I scored each artist out of ten based on how much I like the work, and the list is in order, with the highest scoring at the top.

The hyperlinks attached to the name of each artist goes to further information and/or examples of their work.

This list will grow over time and I intend to use the spreadsheet as a research tool going forwards.

No Name Key genre
1 Paula Rego Painter
2 Lucinda Rogers Editorial illustration
3 Adrian Tomine Narrative illustration
4 Joe Saco Narrative illustration
5 Olivier Kugler Editorial illustration
6 Andrzet Klimowski Editorial illustration
7 Max Beckmann Editorial illustration
8 Otto Dix Editorial illustration
9 Marcelle Hanselaar Painter
10 Henry Moore Sculptor
11 Lucy Austin Painter
12 Veronica Lawlor Editorial illustration
13 George Butler Editorial illustration
14 Louis Netter Editorial illustration
15 Evan Turk Editorial illustration
16 Peter Kuper  Editorial illustration
17 Angie Lewin Editorial illustration
18 Palle Schmidt Narrative illustration
19 Sara Fanelli Narrative illustration
20 Julia Rothman Editorial illustration
21 Wendy MacNaughton Editorial illustration
22 Sabien Clement Narrative illustration
23 Edgar Degas Painter
24 Lucy Jones Editorial illustration
25 Soren Bjaelde Narrative illustration
26 Albrecht Durer Painter
27 Ronald Searle Editorial illustration
28 Chris Gilvan Cartwright Editorial illustration
29 Brian Grimwood Persuasion & identity
30 Serge Bloch Editorial illustration
31 John Singer Sargent Painter
32 Laura Carlin Editorial illustration
33 Marina Grechanik Editorial illustration
34 Edward Bawden Narrative illustration
35 Richard Bawden Narrative illustration
36 Edward Purser Editorial illustration
37 Eda Akaltun Editorial illustration
38 Martin Haake Editorial illustration
39 Lou Beach Editorial illustration
40 David Roberts Narrative illustration
41 Claire Curtis Editorial illustration
42 David Hockney Painter
43 Grayson Perry Painter
44 Vincent Van Gogh Painter
45 Paul Hogarth Narrative illustration
46 David Gentleman Editorial illustration
47 Chloe Regan Editorial illustration
48 Mattias Adolfsson Narrative illustration
49 Pam Smy Narrative illustration
50 Adebanji Alade Narrative illustration
51 Pep Carrio Editorial illustration
52 Gary Barker Editorial illustration
53 Patrick Blower Editorial illustration
54 Laura Hallett Editorial illustration
55 Mike Ritchie Editorial illustration
56 Daniel Chang Editorial illustration
57 Archer/Quinnell Editorial illustration
58 Hisham Akira Bharoocha Editorial illustration
59 Lizzie Finlay Narrative illustration
60 Cecil Touchon Painter
61 Jim Anderson Editorial illustration
62 Christoph Niemann Editorial illustration
63 Saul Steinberg Editorial illustration
64 Agnes Dechourchelle Editorial illustration
65 Lauren Tamaki Editorial illustration
66 John Garcia Editorial illustration
67 Rachel Levit Narrative illustration
68 John Hendrix Editorial illustration
69 Lizzy Stewart  Narrative illustration
70 Myfanwy Tristram Narrative illustration
71 Burris Jenkins Editorial illustration
72 Frans Masereel Narrative illustration
73 Magnus Voll Mathiassen Persuasion & identity
74 Marta Spendowska Editorial illustration
75 Eduardo Paolozzi Painter
76 Satoshi Hashimoto Editorial illustration
77 Emily Bolam Narrative illustration
78 Pablo Palazuelo Painter
79 Louise Bourgeois Painter
80 Ana Botezatu Narrative illustration
81 Joohee Yoon Editorial illustration
82 Peter Green Painter
83 Alicia Caudle Painter
84 Lynda Barry Narrative illustration
85 Nicky Nargesian Narrative illustration
86 Martin Schranks Editorial illustration
87 Yelena Bryksenkova Editorial illustration

Questions

What do these illustrators tell you about current illustration practices?

My current interest is in reportage illustration and it’s of no surprise that many of artists in my top-20 work in this area.

This genre seems to be bursting with life with Urban Sketching events happening weekly around London (and around the world).

It’s interesting for me because there’s a large community aspect to this where self organising groups are supporting one another to develop and experiment. Reportage Illustration, Visual Journalism (Gary Embury and Mario Minichiello) published by Bloomsbury in 2018 focuses mainly on established British illustrators (with some notable exceptions), and demonstrates that this is an area with a marketplace and growing potential.

There’s something really exciting to me about the immediacy of this work and how it’s the result of an illustrator’s direct experience and response to a situation and subject. I like you have to put yourself on-the-line to make the work.

I’m attending and Urban Sketching bootcamp hosted by Veronica Lawlor and Melanie Reim in Prague in July and I’m keen to learn more about how these established artists work and make a living from their practice.

The other thing this exercise has made me think about is how to get myself/my work noticed in amongst so many other great illustrators. The extensive catalogue of illustrators on The Association of Illustrators is a fantastic resource on one hand, but is almost too crowded and overwhelming on the other. How do you stand out from the crowd?

That pointed me towards some of the books on the course recommended reading list that  provide advice about how best to position yourself and your work to give the best chance of getting noticed.

Understanding Illustration, (Derek Brazell and Jo Davies) published by Bloomsbury is one of the books of the reading list that I’ve started to read and provides a great selection of contemporary illustrators and their work.