One of the giants of the golden age of book illustration was Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) of England; he did beautiful pen and ink plus watercolour work for titles such as Wind In the Willows, Peter Pan In Kensington Garden, Grimm's Fairy Tales and Alice In Wonderland published around and after the turn of the century. Here are some examples... Have your own favorite book and magazine illustrators?
Coles Phillips (1880-1927) was an American illustrator most famous for his magazine covers often heavy with Art Deco styling and a limited palate (at least for backgrounds). These are from the original Life Magazine that existed for many years before the photo-centric magazine that debuted in the mid-late '30s... he also worked for Good Housekeeping and Harper's Weekly.
Without Howard Pyle there would be no Norman Rockwell, Frank Frazetta or a lot of the looks in Marvel Universe movies
Aubrey Beardsley did lots of magazine and book illustrations. One of my favorite illustrators of all time. From the Pan magazine. Not sure where this one came from ^
I've been a fan of the work of Ethel Hays (1892-1989) since first learning of her in Trina Robbins & Cat Yronewode's book about women cartoonists published in the 1980s. She did the syndicated daily comic panel Flapper Fanny in the 1920s (taken over by Gladys Parker) and 'Ethel', but her full illustrations for newspapers, magazines and books are of the highest quality, equal to Rose O'Neill (creator of The Kewpies)!
I always want to walk into those crisp Maxfield Parrish landscapes... I used to have a Pomegranate Press book (I think there's a connection to a Dark Shadows actress with it) which had lots of behind the scenes photos from his studio showing how he worked on his paintings. His magazine covers while simpler are equally memorable.
Murder in Mississippi, folks sometimes talk about Norman Rockwell as if he was some kind of lightweight... tain't so.
I thought I remembered some kind of Jack Davis illustrated bubble-gum cards of made up monster baseball players... also some civil war art, but I can't find either via Google... I did find lots of other monster cards by him though... Mainly I saw his art in Mad or ads for jerky sticks, but I think there was a TV Guide cover or twelve.
I have a few books with illustrations by Gustav Doré and they've always stuck in my mind: Don Quixote Paradise Lost The Raven
Before Norman Rockwell it was J. C. Leyendecker (1874-1951) who 'owned' the cover spot of the Saturday Evening Post (322 in total). He was also well known as the artist for Arrow brand shirts and collars ads, and his 'Arrow Man' was as familiar a term as the 'Gibson Girl'.
I thought about being an illustrator in college and for a few years later, but it is a tough racket. Later on when I was designing a kids magazine, the most fun part was when the illustration came in. Some of the art was so amazing.
James Bama's realistic painter style Doc Savage paper back book cover artist was another favorite of mine for the amount of detail and realism in his paintings.
My fifth grade teacher Mrs. Dow in Falfurrias, Texas would read to us in class Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books which had us all laughing so much that I checked out the books in the library and was enthralled by the lyrical and simplistic style of Mr. Hilary Knight's pen line drawings. It fit so well with the hilarious stories. I had no idea of Knight's color work until today. Simply amazing!
Don't know why you'ld refer to the Steadman illustration as unoriginal. Abstract and not obviously representative? Yes. And quite original in conveying that idea very well. First saw his work in the Art Director's Hand Book of Illustrators way back in the late '80's.
I wasn’t referring to RS’s work as unoriginal, I was referring to my pick — my pick is unoriginal. In that, I’m sure most people knows his work. I guess it’s like saying The Dark Side Of The Moon is a great album.