illustrators Magazine: Previewing Issue #4

Guest author Peter Richardson concludes this week's series describing how the newly launched illustrators, a quarterly magazine celebrating the greatest UK and European illustration of the past 150 years, came to be.

David Ashford is our other consultant editor, and although he may be less familiar to followers of Today’s Inspiration, he is nonetheless as passionate about illustration, and is doggedly determined in his researches as David Roach. David Ashford penned the feature on the life and art of UK ‘hard-boiled- artist’; Denis McLoughlin, which leads off our first issue.



It is a truly compelling read, and an embodiment of our intent with illustrators, that writers should invest their features with real insight, putting the reader in touch with both the personality of the artist, as well as the quality of their artwork. David’s love of illustration brought him into contact with many of the editors and artists whose work he had followed and as a consequence, he is able to bring his subjects to life in a way that trawling through Google can never achieve. This is particularly apparent in David’s feature on Denis McLoughlin, who he befriended over many years, and is the subject of his recently published biography; The Art of Denis McLoughlin.



We also have the advantage of access to some truly stunning pieces of original artwork, which are providing us with scans, which reveal every subtle nuance and accent of an artist’s brushwork. We have had an enormous amount of enthusiastic assistance from galleries and collectors, who have provided us with some fabulous material which we can now share with an audience, way beyond the privileged few who have hitherto been privy to exclusively seeing these artworks in their raw beauty.



Issue 4 of illustrators, is also starting to shape up very nicely; we have a lead feature by Bryn Havord on the work of Michael Johnson, whose fabulous work epitomised the “Swinging Sixties”, and who was featured by Today’s Inspiration for a week which started on Monday, June 04, 2012.



We are also taking a look at the work of gentleman illustrator Derek Eyles whose passion for building and sailing model boats was often at variance with his editor’s desire to maximise his hours at the drawing board as he brought to life scenes from the Wild West in his artwork for such publications as Kit Carson’s Cowboy Annual and Chums magazine.



For future issues of illustrators we have features on Brian Sanders...



... Walter Wyles...



... Mick Brownfield...



... Chris McEwan...



... and illustrators agents such as Bardon Artists and Artist Partners lined up. So there is plenty more in store for our readers and we hope you will join us for the journey—it should prove to be eventful and illuminating.

You can order illustrators magazine at illustratorsquarterly.com