Illustrators #23 (magazine review).

First, as announced in this edition of ‘Illustrators’, this is the last edition edited by Peter Richardson, who hands over this important task to Diego Cordoba next time around. Looking at Richardson’s comments, Cordoba has been doing a lot of this work already with his own pages so I doubt if there will be a significant change.

We also have a fabulous 23^rd issue. Starting off with a look at N.C. Wyeth (1882-1945). A pupil of Howard Pyle, Wyeth never liked being seen as an illustrator but as a painter but never lost that label. Seeing all his work here, Wyeth never forgot his homestead roots and showed himself capable of painting anything rural before branching into other things, Chance are, in America, you would have seen his work in illustrated versions of ‘The Last Of The Mohicans’ and ‘Treasure Island’. Diego Cordoba points out that Wyeth excelled in the use of light in his paintings using that to give detail.

Next, we have one artist that should have you all rushing to buy a copy: Virgil Finlay (1914-1969). A fact that you might not be aware of is most of Finlay’s scratchboard illustrations were made at the scale they were printed. I did have a serious think about that. Either he had very good eyesight or the stippling effect he employed made less work to do that way. I suspect line shrinkage might also have just turned it into a mass in those days. The samples of Finlay’s work here also includes his colour paintings and some abstract work that he did towards the end of his career. If you’ve been pondering over whether to buy an issue or not, then this one should have you over the edge to get a copy.

The interview with Bobby Chiu reveals he teaches as well as paints. His menagerie of weird beasties are definitely weird. He was instrumental in getting schoolism off the ground and if you want to add to your artistic skills, look up www.schoolism.com/

Finally, there’s a second look at Anne & Janet Grahame Johnstone’s paintings of Greek legends. They worked to each other’s strengths. Janet was good at animals and Anne at people making a unique blend of getting the best of each of them. Their work is very stylised but also matches the style from that time period.

There are times like this I’ll let the artwork speak for itself. This is an issue to own, so don’t be left out.

GF Willmetts

October 2018

(pub: The Book Palace, 2015. 98 page illustrated squarebound magazine. Price: £18.00 (UK), $21.99 (US). ISBN: 978-1-907081-48-4. ISSN: 2052-6520)

check out website: www.thebookpalace.com and www.illustratorsquarterly.com