Illustrators # 10 (magazine review).
Illustrators # 10 gets off to a great start with a look at the work of William Stout. He mixes his love of dinosaurs and zombies across the media of book covers to film production to museum work with the odd book chucked in. He also works across the medium for pen and ink to full paintings showing a love for EC Comics and other horror-based comics. Interestingly, when he paints dinosaurs, he applies a slight blur which oddly gives a realistic feel as if he was there in the field with his easel.
The name Patrick Nicolle might not be known by most of us but if you’re of a certain age, then you would have seen his work in the UK magazine/comic ‘Look And Learn’, where he dominated in his talent for medieval knights plus a little dose of pirates and Robin Hood. As he was also a founder member of The Arms And Armour Society, he also had access to a lot of source material and actual objects to give authenticity to his illustrations and paintings. Where he truly is staggering and wouldn’t do justice on such a small scale here is his ink illustrations which look like immaculate wood cuttings.
If you’re into card role-games, then the name of Cynthia Sheppard will be familiar to you. As I’m not, I can give a different appraisal. Principally, she’s a digital artist who will use oils from time to time and who is most effective when she uses muted tones. Her cover for Imagine FX Magazine # 10 in contrast to her other work shown here lacks their emotional mood. When things are well-lit then there’s too much emphasis on detail when other colours can be used to propel the mood. Sheppard shows she can add detail to muted tones so I suspect she knows how to do this as well and depends on the client she works for.
Indian Amit Tayal moved from being an accountant, as demanded by his family, to art when the opportunity arose. Even more remarkable is the fact that he is also colour-blind and relies chiefly on digital painting as his medium. That’s not to say that there hasn’t been colour-blind artists before but I guess working digitally that if a colour is wrong, it can be changed very quickly and I would suspect he’s adjusted his palate so he picks a lot of the right colours. Saying that, I’d love to see paintings of how colour-blind people see the world even if only as a comparison. I should point out that there are various types of colour-blindness so not everyone of them is going to see things quite the same way. He does have a nice feel for colour and can equally draw and paint. The feeling he has for not wasting paper clearly evident which is why digital is his favoured medium. What should become apparent when you read his interview is that you don’t necessarily have to have any taught artistic skills to succeed, although Tayal is also a fan of the Andrew Loomis artbooks and there is work out there if you go looking for it.
I’m always amazed at the quality of the artists shown in these square-bound magazines and I should point out that The Book Palace offers them both as paper and digital editions if you want to avoid anything caught in the gutter of the centre crease. My enthusiasm for these magazines should speak for themselves.
GF Willmetts
March 2016
(pub: The Book Palace, 2015. 98 page illustrated squarebound magazine. Price: £18.00 (UK), $ (US). ISBN: 978-1-907081-27-9. ISSN: 2052-6520)
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