Inspiration: Arthur Rackham

One of my all-time favourite illustrators is Arthur Rackham, illustrating fairy tales, fantasy stories and classics- and he was amazing at drawing trees. He was part of the Golden Age of British book illustration. He created his work using pen and ink with watercolour.

Here are a few examples of his work, for some mid-week inspiration:

The Golden Age of Illustration: Jessie Wilcox Smith

Art history focuses too often on male artists. I made the same mistake with an earlier series of posts featuring artists from the Golden Age of Illustration. One of the leading female artists from that time is Jessie Wilcox Smith. Here is some of her her work.

She studied art at university, taking classes taught by Howard Pyle, who seems to have had a magical influence on many of his students who went on to become some of the greatest illustrators of all time.

Her work focuses on girlhood adventures and references to mother and daughter relationships. She was a master of various media including pastels, watercolour and oils, and frequently combined the material in new ways to achieve a specific effect.

 - Patrick

Illustration Unit: Maxfield Parrish

The last illustrator of the Golden Age for the unit is Maxfield Parrish, another influential american artist who worked in book illustration and commercial art during the first half of the twentieth century.

He is known for his intense use of colour; neoclassical figures and drapery; big open skies full of stratocumulus clouds; and painstaking three-dimensional realism achieved through extensive glazing with oil paints.