Martin Salisbury

An overview of the life and work of Oliver Jeffers, the Belfast-raised illustrator, bookmaker, painter, designer, campaigner and global superstar of the world of visual communication A phenomenon of 21st-century bookmaking, Oliver Jeffers has carved an extraordinary career that shows no sign of slowing. Still only in his forties, he has published an array of hugely popular books, both as illustrator and author-illustrator. This overview of his life and work - so far - charts his passion for the environment and his quest to understand humanity's major challenges, and the impact this has had on his creative and intellectual output. The list of Jeffers's accomplishments is long and glittering: he has held numerous one-man shows, in both the UK and the USA, and was appointed an MBE in 2022 for services to the arts. Most importantly, however, he has tirelessly pushed the boundaries of what a picturebook can be. His regular exploration of existential issues - whether through illustration or other media such as site-specific installation or film - has exerted a major influence on the practice of authorial picturebook-making. This addition to Thames & Hudson's acclaimed Illustrators series is the first book to focus closely on Oliver Jeffers's practice as an illustrator, offering an in-depth analysis of his processes, influences, styles and subjects as they have changed over time.

A treasure trove of visual delights: examples of the sketchbooks of sixty international illustrators offer new insights into their artistic practice. Intimate and often unseen, the sketchbook means something different to each illustrator. It might be a beautiful object, a work of art in its own right, where every line is painstakingly considered. It might be a pictorial playground, where mistakes can make art. The boundaries between sketchbooks, notebooks and visual journals are often blurred, lending to the creativity that fills their pages. It is likely that you will recognize many of the illustrators featured, including classic childhood favourites Beatrix Potter, Jean de Brunhoff, Edward Ardizzone and Tove Jansson, and established names such as Beatrice Alemagna, Oliver Jeffers and Shaun Tan. Others are up-and-coming, for example Charlotte Ager and Leah Yang. Martin Salisbury draws on decades of experience as an illustrator and educator to shed light on the lives and work of each artist. He even reveals pages from his own sketchbooks, exposing the rawness of his ideas and the narratives that surround them. As the reader will discover, sketchbooks are often a fascinating and surprising window into the mind of the illustrator.

An instructive book that examines the practice of drawing for illustration through case studies and sketchbooks, written by one of the world's foremost experts and teachers on the subject. This essential handbook explores the subject of drawing for illustration in-depth, with an emphasis on drawing as a skill and fundamental language that every illustrator should master. It aims to encourage students through examples and case studies, by showcasing the often-unseen world of draughtsmanship that underpins the finished graphic. From book illustration to graphic novels, caricatures to commercial design, it draws on contemporary sketchbooks, projects and historical examples to make the connection between the practice of drawing from observation and drawing from imagination. Martin Salisbury sets out by explaining the fundamentals of this exciting discipline, before outlining the basic principles of line, tone, composition and colour through inspiring examples. Different approaches to drawing including anecdotal, sequential and reportage are examined, to enable students to acquire their own personal visual language. Interviews with illustrators also provide invaluable insight into the creative process, as they outline their challenges and motivations, and what drawing personally means for them. Packed with visual inspiration, this book features detailed analysis of works by key illustrators from past and present including George Cruikshank, Egon Schiele, Ronald Searle and Sheila Robinson through to Laura Carlin, Alexis Deacon and Isabelle Arsenault, looking at the differing roles drawing plays in their particular illustrative languages and how styles have changed over time.

Ponořte se do světa kouzelných ilustrací Miroslava Šaška, českého spisovatele a ilustrátora, který procestoval celý svět. Mnozí z nás znají jeho tvorbu zejména v podobě řady turistických průvodců pro děti nazvaných To je… S lehkostí sobě vlastní a s velkou úctou k zobrazovaným místům v nich dětem i dospělým představil mnoho světových metropolí a dalších míst – Paříž, Londýn, New York, Hongkong, ale také například Austrálii, americkou kosmickou základnu Cape Canaveral a mnoho dalších. Získaly si světovou proslulost a motivy z jejich ilustrací se objevují i na pohlednicích, plakátech a užitkových předmětech. Šašek však nezůstával jenom u knih pro děti. Kromě průvodců po městech a zemích vydal další autorské knížky, řadu titulů ilustroval, pro rádio Svobodná Evropa, kde pracoval v padesátých letech 20. století jako hlasatel, herec a ilustrátor, později pravidelně psal a namlouval fejetony a postřehy ze svých cest po světě. Seznamte se spolu s námi s jeho bohatou tvorbou, ale i s Miroslavem Šaškem jako člověkem, mezinárodně uznávaným umělcem a světoběžníkem. Jeho domovem byla celá planeta. To byl… Miroslav Šašek.

The middle decades of the twentieth century saw an extraordinary flourishing of the illustrated, pictorial dust jacket. From the 1920s, as the potential for the book’s protective wrapping to be used for promotion and enticement became clear, artists and illustrators on both sides of the Atlantic applied their talents to this particular art form. Rising to the wide-ranging challenges posed by format and subject matter, leading artists and illustrators, including John Piper, Edward Bawden and John Minton in the UK and Ben Shahn, Edward Gorey and George Salter in the USA, brought their unique personal vision to bear on the world of books. Many of their designs reflect the changing visual styles and motifs of the period, including Bloomsbury, Art Deco, Modernism, postwar neo-romanticism and the Kitchen Sink School. Martin Salisbury has selected over fifty of the artists and illustrators who were active in the period 1920–1970 in the UK and USA, as well as others such as Tove Jansson and Celestino Piatti, and discusses their life and work. A selection of dust jackets – both known and too long forgotten – for each artist reveals how far the book as an artefact had travelled from the days of the plain wrapper in the nineteenth century. Table of Contents Introduction • Profiles of over 50 illustrators