Illustrators #26 (magazine review).
As I’m often said in the past, I look forward to every edition of ‘Illustrators’ and there is no exception with the 26th issue with a mixture of period art and cartoon illustrating. Even enough contrast to keep everyone happy.
The opening artist is John Millar-Watt (1895-1975) who could turn his hand to any medium. He spent 30 years on his own creation ‘Pop’ for the ‘Daily Sketch’ and it took a while to break free from that to get back into serious illustration in period dramas using pen and ink and watercolour. His range was startling and hardly surprising that ‘Look & Learn’ got him. Writing about him are David Ashford and Norman Wright and I agree with them that Millar-Watt had a way with capturing action in a panel and attention to detail.
The second artist is Serbian Petar Meseldzija (1965- ) and is interviewed by Diego Cordoba. A European comicbook illustrator who gradually moved over to fantasy painting with loads of examples here. He has interesting choice of colours in his oil palate that give a light approach to his paintings and showing that you don’t need to rely on dark colours, even with dragons.
Although I read ‘Playhour’ and ‘Treasure’ as my first comics when very young, I didn’t recall the work of Philip Mendoza (1898-1972), although his work extended beyond there. David Ashford examines his life and shows samples of his work that he could turn his hand to any style and any subject, all very useful for being a commercial artist. His anthropomorphic animals shown here are a delight and he illustrated everything from ‘Gulliver Guinea-Pig’ to ‘Wind In The Willows’, ‘The Borrowers’ and ’Alice In Wonderland’.
Finally, a briefer look at the work of Arthur Barbosa (1908-1995) by Lawrence Blackmore, questioning if we can place him. You might recognise his book covers for the George MacDonald Frazer ‘Flashman’ book series and for romance author Georgette Heyer, who didn’t want anyone else painting the covers of her books. Barbosa took the accuracy of his period piece paintings very seriously to the point of getting people dressed up in them to paint from.
As always, an informative issue to add to your collection and the sample art included with this review should be enough to urge you to buy a copy of enlightenment.
GF Willmetts
June 2019
(pub: The Book Palace, 2019. 98 page illustrated squarebound magazine. Price: £18.00 (UK), $21.99 (US). ISBN: 978-1-907081-66-8. ISSN: 2052-6520)
check out website: www.bookpalace.com