V&A Illustration Awards 2026: Last Call for Entries

This is about the Call for Entries for the biennial V&A Illustration Awards - in 2026. Below are the basic facts of what you need to know - plus the link to where you can read more. Deadline for entry is 12.00 GMT on 5 January 2026.

The V&A Illustration Awards is a free, biennial competition celebrating excellence in illustration and contemporary practice, and judged by a panel of prominent illustrators and industry experts.

The Awards aim to reflect the contemporary UK illustration scene, welcoming published work by UK residents or those resident anywhere in the world working for UK clients. 

Illustration: Moira Gemmill Illustrator of the Year 2024 Benjamin Phillips, 

Alte Zachen / Old Things by Ziggy Hanaor (© Cicada Books, B. Phillips 2022)

 

The Prizes

The prize money has increased for 2026, 

• each of the five category winners will receive £3,500 
• five runners-up will get £1000. 
• The overall winner, the Moira Gemmill Illustrator of the Year, receives 
• an additional £5,500 (making a total of £9,000) and 
• their work will become part of the V&A’s collections. 

Winners and runners-up for each category will be announced in summer 2026. Their work will be displayed in a dedicated, curated display within the V&A.

The Awards are generously supported by the Linder Foundation and the Moira Gemmell Memorial fund.

What you need to know

What are the categories for entries?

In 2026, there are five categories. There are no "designated briefs" for entries in any category.

The five categories are:

Ever thought of using AI to help with your artwork?

This is a bit of a weird one.

You may have realised by now that I'm very much against AI as a substitute for artists making art using their own hands and eyes.

However it occurred to me earlier this week that maybe there is some scope for AI in art.

I first wrote about AI and painting back in May 2023 in this post - which is still a recommended read (see more at the end of this post)

RECOMMENDED: Duane Keiser on AI and Painting
Duane Keiser has been writing recently on his blog about the advent of AI and whether it is a serious rival to painting 'for real'.

Would you use AI to help with your "hand and eye" art? 

Anyway, first here's what I said on Facebook - by way of this query......

Ever thought of using AI to help with your artwork?

This was my explanation for the post

So…… Would you be interested to give it a try?
Or is this a complete anathema for you?

The question is a thought which occurred to me while listening to “The Rest is Entertainment” podcast (very educational surprisingly!) - and they were discussing how the first AI model has now appeared in Vogue!!

Or as Conde Nast put it “NOT in the editorial content” (i.e. it was an advert)

They then went on to discuss how much time and budget eg retailers would save commissioning AI models….

Who remembers the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize in 2017 when one of the portraits selected was 100% computer generated i.e. android!!!
Read Breach of rules - Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2017

This is the question which appeared on the YouTube version of Q&A Edition of The Rest is Entertainment "Was Vogue Wrong To Publish A Fake Model?"

and this is the video followed by the questions asked.

A celebration of Victor Ambrus

Last week I went to see the restrospective exhibition of drawings by the late Victor Ambrus (1935-2021) at the Bankside Gallery.

I was a HUGE fan of his wonderful drawings - mostly in dry media - with some watercolour added occasionally.  He was the most fantastic illustrator as well as wonderful drawer of both people and animals. 

You can see my photos from the exhibition in three posts on my Facebook Page. The narrative is reproduced below - with links to each of the posts. Don't miss the photos of his decsriptions of 

• how I draw
• how to draw animals!

There’s an exhibition of the work of the Late Victor Ambrus at the Bankside Gallery until Sunday 6th August. I went yesterday and it’s splendid. I always used to look forward to seeing his work at Pastel Society Exhibitions. He was both an artist and an illustrator who mainly worked in dry media and who illustrated over 400 books and was part of the Time Team group.

More photos from the Victor Ambrus exhibition at the Bankside - continues until Sunday 6th August. These are of the various animals he drew from life in different zoos in dry media. It starts with a description of how he drew animals.

Yet more photos from the Victor Ambrus Exhibition at the Bankside Gallery which closes shortly. PLUS A description of "How I Draw" by Victor Ambrus.

Plus you can see his work celebrated in two videos (embedded below)

• A Time Team Tribute to Victor Ambrus following his demise in 2021.
• A film made by South West Heritage - which was playing in the Gallery during the exhibition

Still from the South West Heritage Video below - of Victor working in his studio

There are in fact quite a few videos of and about Victor on YouTube!

I hope for all of you who appreciated his work, this is post to maybe bookmark.

Quentin Blake is 90 today!

Today is the 90th Birthday of Sir Quentin Blake, the ! To celebrate this, there have been some new initiatives

• He's been telling the story of his life in illustration through a new BBC programme  called Quentin Blake: The Drawing of My Life - which you can watch on iPlayer. 

• 90 illustrators have celebrated his life by creating illustrations of candles for a virtual exhibition by the UK’s national centre for illustration

• Bonhams held a Quentin Blake at 90 Fundraising Auction this week 

Thank you for all the birthday messages! pic.twitter.com/MMSkcfs5xb

— Sir Quentin Blake HQ (@QuentinBlakeHQ) December 16, 2022

Quentin Blake: The Drawing of My Life

Blake is presented with an enormous white wall of paper and invited to draw his life. 

Quentin Blake confronted by the giant blank wall of paper on which to draw his life

You can access the programme now on iPlayer - but, although I started watching it, I've decided to save it for Christmas Day when it's also being broadcast on BBC2 at 4.10pm in the afternoon. There's a lot of much younger illustrators who will wish they can draw with the fluidity of Quentin at 90!

You can read all about Quentin Blake and his achievements on his website - in Meet Quentin Blake

90 Candles by 90 Illustrators

With a career in illustration spanning eight decades, Blake’s books have inspired generations of readers and illustrators.

To celebrate Blake’s 90th milestone birthday, the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration  invited 90 of the UK’s leading illustrators - working in editorial, literature, fashion, animation and design - to create an image of a candle that references the original meaning of the word ‘illustration’ as “to light up, make light or illuminate”. 

some of the 90 candles illustrations

Keith Haring vs Mr Doodle

 I watched a news item on BBC Breakfast TV this morning about a chap called "Mr Doodle" (his real name is actually Sam Cox). 

The BBC was treating him as if he'd invented a completely new way of creating art - which is what prompted this post.

In fact, it looked very much to me as if he's trying to emulate the style of Keith Haring (1958-1990) - minus the homoerotic / sexual aspects of the latter's work. Mr Doodle's artwork seems to focus more on what look like kiddy cartoon characters - BUT the style of drawing is very, very similar. (I do wonder at times what the BBC losing competent arts journalists is doing to its coverage of art).

Keith Haring Foundation website

Haring was very much a pop culture artist of the 1980s. I well remember reading about him at the time and being completely amazed by nature and scale of his artworks.

He became an established artist by 1983 but preferred to keep his prices low so that his art was more accessible.

Haring created the Pop Shop in 1986 in the SoHo district of Manhattan, selling T-shirts, toys, posters, and other objects that show his works—allowing his works to be accessible to a larger number of people. Speaking about the Pop Shop in 1989, Haring said: "For the past five or six years, the rewards I've gotten are very disproportionate to what I deserve...I make a lot more money than what I should make, so it's a little bit of guilt, of wanting to give it back." Wikipedia

His artwork is now administered by the Keith Haring Foundation and sold via the Gladstone Gallery in New York 

Haring's VERY distinctive signature style has been much copied over the years by:

• his fans wishing to produce accolades to his art
• those wishing to make lots of money from his style - in part because Haring's style is so  very marketable. 

The reason Mr Doodle got a significant spot on the BBC is because he's doodled his house in Tenterden in Kent - absolutely everywhere. Apparently the neighbours don't mind. I'm wondering if they might should opening the house to the public is the next step!

See the video from his Twitter account below

Online Exhibition by the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators

If you've ever considered moving on from an interest in drawing and painting animals to becoming a Natural Science Illustrator, you may well be interested to view the Online Exhibition of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators.

It coincides with their 2022 Virtual Annual Conference which has finished the Core Conference - with workshops to come on 20–21 & 27–28, 2022.

2022 Juried Members' Exhibition by GNSI Artists

You can view the Online Exhibition here

Raymond Briggs - from 'London Portraits' by Carl Randall

Yesterday Carl Randall posted his portrait of Raymond Briggs on Facebook to mark the news of his death age 88 on Tuesday.

Last night I watched two programmes about Raymond Briggs on BBC (links below are to the programmes on iPlayer) - both of which I highly recommend

• The first was Raymond Briggs: Snowmen, Bogeymen and Milkmen - which was a portrait of his life involving interviews with Raymond Briggs and contributions from both friends and admirers (and there's a lot of those)
• The second was Ethel and Ernest - which was a hand drawn animated film based on his award winning book by author and illustrator Raymond Briggs.

This was the point when the background to Carl Randall's portrait of Raymond suddenly made sense. It's the house at 65 Ashen Grove, Wimbledon Park where he was born and where he lived for the first 23 years of his life - apart from when he was called up.

Below are stills from the video of Carl painting Raymond and Raymond talking about the house. Carl made back the video in 2016 when he was creating the London Portrait series.

Plus the video about the series - set up to start at the Raymond Briggs section.

You can see the completed painting on Carl's website copyright Making A Mark Publications

Carl Randall painting Raymond Briggs

Carl Randall painting Raymond Briggs

Author/Illustrator Raymond Briggs chose 65 Ashen Grove as the backdrop of his portrait because he was born and brought up in the house, and it also features in his book ‘Ethel and Ernest’.

For more about Raymond Briggs see:

• his page on his agent's website
• my blog post yesterday RIP Raymond Briggs (1934 - 2022)
• the Wikipedia entry

For more about Carl Randall's 

• series of London Portraits - which depict people and places in contemporary London
• commissions

RIP Raymond Briggs (1934 - 2022)

There's not many people who went to the Slade School of Art who have achieved critical and popular success - among adults and children - for their illustrations and text and best selling cartoons and picture books.

Raymond Briggs CBE (18 January 1934 – 9 August 2022) was a British illustrator, cartoonist, graphic novelist and author. He was also a Patron of the Association of Illustrators. He died on Tuesday age 88 years old.

“Raymond liked to act the professional curmudgeon, but we will remember him for his stories of love and of loss. I know from the many letters he received how his books and animations touched people’s hearts. He kept his curiosity and sense of wonder right up to the last.” Hilary Delamere, Briggs’s literary agent.

[UPDATE: There's a wonderful film about Raymond Briggs and his book on iPlayer - Raymond Briggs: Snowmen, Bogeymen and Milkmen - BBC - I highly recommend it.]

Lifeline

• 18 January 1934  -  born in Wimbledon. His Dad was a milkman and his Mum was a former Lady's Maid.
• 1949 to 1953  -  studied painting at Wimbledon School of Art and typogrea[hy at Central School of Art
• 1953 to 1955 - National Service conscript
• 1955 - 1957 - studied painting at Slade School of Art
• 1961 - 1986 - Briggs began teaching illustration part-time at Brighton School of Art
• 1958 onwards - Illustrating books

Raymond Briggs - banner from his official Facebook Page

Awards

• 1966  -  Won the Kate Greenaway Medal for The Mother Goose Treasury
• 1973 - Won the Kate Greenaway Medal, for Father Christmas
• 1977 - Francis Williams Award for Illustration (Victoria and Albert Museum), for Father Christmas
• 1979 - Boston Globe–Horn Book Award (U.S.), for The Snowman
• 1979 - Silver Pen Award (Netherlands)
• 1982 - Children's Rights Workshop Other Award
• 1982 - Francis Williams Award for Illustration, for The Snowman
• 1992 - Kurt Maschler Award, for The Man
• 1992 - Children's Author of the Year, British Book Awards
• 1998 - Illustrated Book of the Year, British Book Awards, for Ethel & Ernest
• 2012 - British Comic Awards Hall of Fame
• 2014 - Phoenix Picture Book Award for The Bear

His own publications

He switched to writing as well as illustrating and producing his own picture books because it was much better paid. He explains how it took 10 years for this to dawn on him in the video below. Plus provides a few very pertinent tips for those interested in illustrating picture books for children. It's a fascinating listen!

Video posted on his Official Facebook Page today

The illustrated book is around for a long time and has much more permanence.

He initially produced his own work in comic book format. 

His own illustrated publications included:

Book Review: Natural History Illustration in Pen and Ink by Sarah Morrish

Natural History Illustration in Pen and Ink by Sarah Morrish is a book by a well educated and very experienced natural history illustrator who writes extremely well - and it shows on every one of its pages making it joy to read.

Combine science with art and journey through nature

One of the things which distinguishes this book is it's written by somebody who has 

• qualifications in education, science (ecology, conservation) and art (botanical illustration) and 
• lots of experience of 
• natural history illustration, 
• pen and ink as a medium and 
• teaching students in class, online and through written materials  

Sarah Morrish has created a very informative book on a topic which is not well covered in art instruction literature.  It is packed full of very educational content - nothing is vacuous or vague. The quality of the content is matched by it also being a very well structured and designed book with an excellent range of images. Sarah understands very well how to make a complex topic accessible and easy to digest by students looking to learn about or improve their skills and techniques in pen and ink illustration of the natural world

Her skills in this area have been endorsed by the Natural History Museum London which has commissioned her to produce online learning resources on the theme of natural science illustration for their Introduction to British Natural History Studies Training Course in 2021 - which is a super endorsement of her skills in this area.

Her book also usefully includes image contributions from some very impressive artists and illustrators working in this field from around the world who are both experienced and experts in their respective fields within natural history. I knew some but not all of them and I loved being introduced to artists who were new to me. 

Her book is, for me, a very refreshing change from my absolute bête noire i.e. art instruction books written by people who don't know their subject as well as they need to if they want to teach others and/or books where the flow of the content is poor and not well written.

What I really liked about the book

At the beginning two things stood out for me. There's a 

• useful discussion about the depiction of nature and wild life which explores the parameters of the subject and how it can be represented
• a timeline of the development of illustration using pen and ink which I've not seen before.

Other aspects I particularly liked 

• Her very useful summaries of key points in a chapter. It's so easy to lose these when the text is so packed full of information. These 
• Her summary checklists of things to think about with respect to different aspects of pen and ink illustration of natural history - e.g. the use of photography - which go from the basic and generic to the particular relevant to the subject matter and its particular challenges.
• Very good discussion of the range of art materials, tools and equipment available to the pen and ink illustrator including:
• Her emphasis on using the right tool for the job and 
• her discussion of the very wide variety of both pens and nibs and inks available to the pen and ink illustrator
• an excellent set of illustrations of different examples in relation to both techniques and subject matters
• Her very clear illustrations of the differences between different techniques of contour hatching, cross hatching and stippling.
• Her very clearly annotated pen and ink drawings which explain the use made of different mark-making techniques 
• it includes a very useful section on Composition which focuses on how the principles and elements translate into this subject area and media
• The huge diversity of subject matter illustrated in the book demonstrates how fascinating this aspect of art can be for those interested in nature and natural history. It includes specimens which I've never seen included in any art instruction book before.
• The step by step exercises - which do not try to be lowest common denominator exercise for those new to the subject or media and instead clearly indicate a clear aim and scope plus a recommended and precise skill level needed prior to trying the exercise.
• Her tips go way beyond the technical aspects of illustration. Sarah has some really great tips concerning the collection, presentation and storage of specimens found in the field. You just know these have been learned the hard way! The practical tips are in no way sanitised - she warns you when a specimen is going to smell!
• I love the stories behind the development of some of the drawings of how specimens or habitats were encountered and approaches used to collect information for subsequent illustrations.

In conclusion......

Essentially this book is an excellent resource and reference book. It is

• an excellent and comprehensive instruction book which is packed full of quality content that is both well organised and well written 
• very practical - with lots of useful information and tips
• packed full of illustrations and images which inform, educate and inspire
• suitable for any committed art students from secondary school to the third age

My art instruction books of choice many years ago used to be those produced by Watson Guptill (The Drawing Book etc) because they were comprehensive, objective and authoritative. I can pay this book no higher compliment then to say it very much reminds me of the quality of those publications about various art and media topics - including the book on pen and ink! 

I'm very much looking forward to her next book.

About Sarah Morrish

Sarah Morrish is a widely-respected artist, illustrator and tutor, with many years of teaching experience. With a working background in ecology and conservation, she aims to raise awareness of the beauty and fragility of nature in all its forms. She is a member of the American Society of Botanical Artists, the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators, the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society and a Fellow of the Linnean Society.

You can find out more about Sarah Morrish - and the other methods she uses to teach natural history and botanical illustration in the links below

• her website - Nature's Details
• her tuition site - Illustrating Natures Details
• her Facebook Page - Illustrating Natures Details with Sarah Morrish
• her Facebook Page for the Book - Sarah Morrish: Natural History Illustration in Pen & Ink
• an interview with her -'It's important to find different ways to connect with people' | The Biologist

BOOK SUMMARY:

Publisher ‏ : ‎ The Crowood Press Ltd 

Publication date: 10 August 2021 in UK; 1 January 2022 in USA
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 208 pages | Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 22 x 1.27 x 27.99 cm

Kindle Edition: File size ‏ : ‎ 63415 KB | Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled | Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported | Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1785009222 | ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1785009228

READ a review of this book published in the magazine for the members and patrons of the Natural History Museum which was written by one of the ecologists working at the Museum

As an ecologist, I appreciated the section dealing with legalities and best practice when collecting subject material. This is so important, but could have been glossed over so easily.

The book is available from a number of sources:

• Crowood Press
• Amazon UK
• Amazon. com

(Note: the Amazon links are my Associate links)

Lewis Carroll illustrated as well as wrote about Alice's Adventures

Did you know that John Tenniel was not the first person to illustrate Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll?

In fact, the author, the Reverend Charles Dodgson - who used the pen name of Lewis Carroll - was also a visual artist who mixed with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and enjoyed drawing.

He illustrated the first version of his story himself. His original manuscript of “Alice’s Adventures Under Ground” (as it was first called) - now in the British Library - was written in sepia ink and contains 37 pen and ink illustrations and a rather elaborate title page. 

Pen and ink illustrations for Alice’s Adventures Under Ground
by Lewis Carroll

This compares to some 90+ illustrations by Tenniel for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

You can review the book and the fascinating illustrations

• either via the British Library website - where the manuscript has a dedicated page and you can expand the images of the book to full screen and read the text easily
• or the Public Domain Review in an article called Lewis Carroll’s Illustrations for “Alice’s Adventures Under Ground” (1864)

What happened to the manuscript and how did it end up at the British Library?

Alice Liddell treasured the manuscript until 1928, but was then forced to sell it to pay death duties after the death of her husband. The manuscript was sold at auction at Sotheby’s for £15,000 to an American dealer, Dr Rosenbach. He in turn sold it to Eldridge Johnson upon returning to America. Following Johnson’s death in 1946 the manuscript was again sold at auction. This time, however, it was purchased by a wealthy group of American benefactors, who donated the manuscript to the British Museum in 1948. The return of this important work to the British people was a token of gratitude for Britain's stand against Adolf Hitler during World War Two.
British Library - text next to full screen view of the manuscript

A new book about Natural History Illustration in Pen & Ink

Natural History Illustration in Pen & Ink by Sarah Morrish is being published by Crowood Press (one of my favourite art instruction publishers) on 23rd August 2021.

Natural History Illustration in Pen and Ink
by Sarah Morrish

It's always a pleasure to introduce a new book by a friend. 

I've been watching content for this book being developed for some time - and it's great to know that we now have a known publication date and it can now be ordered.

Sarah Morrish is a botanical and natural history artist and illustrator who which combines science and art. She has exhibited extensively and also teaches workshops and online (See her website Illustrating Nature's Details). She also has a BSc Hons Ecology & Conservation Biology and a Certificate in Botanical Illustration from the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh.

This is her first book. It won't be her last!

I know how Sarah teaches - she's very thorough and extremely well-organised and communicates extremely clearly - both in writing and online when she's delivering Zoom workshops / demonstrations to artists all over the world.

A new book about drawing nature in pen and ink

This is a unique book of instruction for those who enjoy - or aspire to - drawing nature and wildlife. So far as I am aware there's no other art instruction book which covers drawing a range of natural history subjects in pen and ink.

It provides:

• Practical advice on using a range of materials and equipment for illustrating in pen and ink, as well as the collection and preservation of subject matter and reference material.
• Detailed instruction in how to create essential mark-making techniques that will enhance your illustrations through accurate depiction of shape, form, texture and pattern, and in the principles and elements of design.
• Subject-themed chapters including botanical subjects, strandline and marine specimens, fossils, invertebrates, birds, feathers and nests, and mammals.
• Additional chapters on: 
•  the importance of sketchbooks and study pages, 
• protection and presentation of artwork, 
• combining pen and ink with other media and 
• composition.
• Step-by-step exercises suitable for all skill levels 
• Case studies describing working practice as a professional illustrator.

Additional examples of natural history illustration in pen and ink by other artists - including:

Three book reviews about Botanical Art and Illustration

On Monday, three new art instruction books arrived and I've been spending this week reading different perspectives on guidance and instruction for those interested in botanical art, painting and illustration - and then writing three book reviews.

The books are:

• Botanical Illustration - The Complete Guide by Leigh Ann Gale 
• Botanical Art with Scientific Illustration by Sarah Jane Humphrey 
• Botanical Painting by Margaret Stevens (with the SBA)

BELOW you can find the links to the three book reviews and a short summary of each.

Links are embedded in the title of the books reviews.  If you want to know more, read the full review on Botanical Art and Artist News

Graphite and watercolour - two NEW guides

Two new publications by leading artists who demonstrate expertise in their respective fields

• one is a new book about his watercolour portfolio by leading watercolour painter David Poxon RWS NWS
• the second is a detailed guide about using graphite for scientific illustration by Rogério Lupo.

[Note: This post has been revised since first published]

Watercolour Heart and Soul by David Poxon

Watercolour, Heart & Soul is David Poxon's first book about how he paints in watercolour.

To me that seems somewhat surprising given he's been a leading watercolour painter with an international reputation. Indeed he's moved on to being one of those artists who you see a lot of other artists trying to emulate his paintings!

David is an elected member of the prestigious R.I. (The Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours) and serves on the R.I. Council. He is also a signature member of N.W.S (The National Watercolour Society) in the USA and has served on the jury for selection (in 2015).

The book is now published.

Watercolour Heart & Soul contains an eclectic collection of his most iconic paintings together with a detailed section describing the artists techniques. Author's website

I confess I've not yet seen a copy as it is so new, however if it's as good as David's paintings.....

UPDATE: Please note I am only suggesting this book for people who want to see David's paintings. 

You can order this 190 page book in one of three ways

• from his website via this link for £29.90 + flat rate shipping at £3.90
• order via Amazon - with free delivery
• or buy it at the upcoming annual exhibition of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour at the Mall Galleries - although I expect it will be in stock if you are're in the Galleries before then

Graphite for Scientific Illustration by Rogerio Lupo

Graphite for Scientific Illustration by Brazilian illustrator Rogério Lupo is a new English translation of his Guide (in Portuguese) about how to use graphite for scientific illustration of botanical subjects.

This is a FREE guide which can be downloaded as a PDF file from Slideshare (just click the link in the title above)

It's intended for:

• anyone interested in learning about the fundamentals of graphite 
• anyone who wants improve their knowledge and skills in the use of graphite for scientific illustration generally and botanical illustration in particular.

The guide covers the following:

• how to observe and render light and shadow and nuances accurately
• How to sharpen, handle and move a pencil to achieve better application and coverage of the support with graphite
• How to use pencil delicately so as to make good use of time, achieve a good finish and preserve the integrity of the paper
• how to render shade gradually from the lightest to the darkest tones
• How to render the different textures and colours of subject matter in monochoromatic shades of grey
• How to recognise and represent luminosities, reflections and contrasts; 
• Practical and fast methods for rendering of hairs and thorns.
• How to prevent errors, cope with problems with paper and damage which cannot be repaired

He also provides a very useful commentary on both brands and grades of graphite and different types of paper suitable for working on when using graphite.

Rogério Lupo is a Brazilian Natural Science Illustrator based in Sao Paulo. He has won first prize in several competitions including the very prestigious Margaret Flockton Award - for international 'strictly botanical' illustrators in 2010 and 2013. He graduated in biology from the Universidade de São Paulo. Much of his work is dedicated to the illustration of scientific botanical articles/papers. He has also researched different approaches to illustration and artistic techniques.

Judging by the traffic to my blog post yesterday on my Botanical Art and Artists website, there's very great interest in getting hold of this Guide!

Hence why I decided to share it with a wider audience.

Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth - an exhibition at the Bodleian

Next year Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth will be on display in the Weston Library of The Bodleian Libraries in Oxford between 1 June-28 October 2018.

This exhibition will explore the full breadth of Tolkien’s unique literary imagination from his creation of Middle-earth, the imagined world where The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and his other works are set, to his life and work as an artist, poet, medievalist and scholar of languages.

The exhibition focuses on the creative genius of Professor J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973)

It's an exhibition which is guaranteed to delight visitors of all ages as well as Tolkien fans and scholars.  It's also the first time, since the 1950s, that literary and visual materials produced by Tolkein - now held in the UK and the USA - will be on display in Oxford.

Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth will feature:

• manuscripts, 
• artwork, 
• maps, 
• letters and 
• artefacts from the Bodleian’s foremost Tolkien Archive, the J. R. R. Tolkien Collection at Marquette University in the USA and from private collections.

Below are some of the images from The Hobbit (published on 21 September 1937) which will be in the exhibition.

Below is the final design of the dust jacket which many of us will be very familiar with. It's certainly one of the books I remember best reading as a child over 50 years ago. It's also a book which has never been out of print.

Hobbit Dust Jacket
Credit: © The Tolkien Estate Limited 1937

Tolkien not only illustrated The Hobbit but was also closely involved in its production process. He designed both the dust-jacket and the binding. Tolkien’s notes can be seen around the outside of the image.

Apparently he was very keen to use four colours for the printing of the dust cover: green, blue, black and red but this was too expensive. The note scrawled by the publisher across the  left hand margin says ‘Ignore red’.

Bilbo comes to the huts of the Raft-elves
© The Tolkien Estate Limited 1937
Bilbo is seen sitting astride a barrel floating down the forest river,
having helped the dwarves (who are hidden inside the wine barrels)
to escape from the dungeons of the Elven King.

This was Tolkien’s favourite watercolour. It's a watercolour which would be regarded as an accomplished illustration from a professional illustrator. Instead it was painted by Tolkein himself who was the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and a Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford at the time!

This illustration appeared in the first edition and continued to be included in numerous other editions of the book. However, Tolkien was very disappointed to find that it had been omitted from the first American edition.

About Donald Trump, POTUS 2016 and David Parkins

This evening I finally found the source of the image I shared early this morning from a women's Facebook account to my Making A Mark Facebook Page after spending the night watching the results come in. (I always think the result will be in the next 10 minutes!) Which means I watched both iconic elections of 2016 as they happened!

The intention was to illustrate the level of shock and dismay experienced by many people following the 2016 POTUS Election - in very marked contrast to the joy and hope which followed the 2008 POTUS Election

Initially I thought she was an artist and she'd come up with the image herself. But it kept bugging me all day - mainly because most artists are rather better at claiming artwork as their own.

So in need of some distraction therapy I went on a hunt on the Internet to see if I could find the original - and, as importantly - who exactly had produced what seems to me to be an iconic illustration of this POTUS Election.  (It's actually not very easy to find images on Facebook on the Internet as the finder software in Google Images and Tineye doesn't work very well inside Facebook (See How to do a reverse image search), So I went from Facebook to website to Twitter account - and there found the image posted by somebody else. That gave me the basis for then doing a reverse search - and that's when I found the larger version.

Trump's coronation in Cleveland will be the burial of the old Republican dynasty https://t.co/YLfwER1nO5 pic.twitter.com/0Pw7APvW28

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) July 18, 2016

Cover of The Economist 16-22 July 2016

Illustration by David Parkins

It turned out that the image was a crop of a cover of The Economist edition covering 16th-22nd July 2016. Its feature article was about Donald Trump and a divided America.

This is when I found out that the image is by illustrator David Parkins.

It's nice to be able to credit the originator of one of the most effective images I've seen to sum up much of the feelings after the result of the 2016 POTUS Election.

Interestingly the intention at the time was to illustrate one of the themes of the article

In 2016 that seems to have been turned on its head: America is shrouded in a most unAmerican pessimism.

About David Parkins

David Parkins has apparently been an illustrator for over 40 years.  He seems to be a very modest chap as his website contains no bio or CV.  All I could detect is that when he was younger he used to live in the UK and that he now lives in Canada. Odd that - he obviously got in before the Great Canadian Immigration Website Crash of 8th November 2016! ;) Later I found that he also has a Wikipedia entry!

David Parkins is a British cartoonist and illustrator who has worked for D.C. Thomson, publisher of The Beano and The Dandy. Now based in Canada, he illustrates children's picture books

His website is however a compilation of a selection of his illustrations over the years - working in different ways for different clients.

In forty years illustrating, I have been obliged to work in a whole lot of different ways. I like the work to fit the brief. I like to do different types of work. I like my eggs distributed around various baskets because I am fallible, and if they were all in the one basket I'd probably sit on it.

I found his website both fascinating and utterly delightful in terms of the range of illustrations for:

RIP - some of the artists who died in 2015

These are some of leading figures in the art world who died this year - plus some leading artists the in the UK art world and a couple I know personally.

I've started at the end of the year and have worked backwards.

Do please say if you think I've left anybody important out by mistake.

December 2015

• Ellsworth Kelly (age 93) an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker - see obituaries and artwork in
• Ellsworth Kelly, Who Shaped Geometries on a Bold Scale, Dies at 92 | New York Times
• Ellsworth Kelly, the American abstract painter and sculptor, dies at 92 | The Guardian
• US artist Ellsworth Kelly dies aged 92 | BBC
• 235 works online at MOMA

News: Images of Ellsworth Kelly and his work remembered on Twitter

• Ray Crooke (age 93), Australian artist, winner of the Archibald Prize in 1969 - see obitauries in
• Archibald Prize winner Ray Crooke dies | Daily Telegraph (Australia)
• Ray Crooke painter of the far north, dies at 93 | The Australian Financial Review
• Artist Ray Crooke dies in Cairns home aged 93 | The Australian 
• Derek Hyatt (age 86) - Yorkshire born and Yorkshire loving landscape painter
• Derek Hyatt, artist - obituary | Telegraph.co.uk
• Derek Hyatt obituary | The Guardian 
• Leslie Waddington (age 81) - Obituaries of this well known London art dealer include:
• Leslie Waddington, art dealer | The Telegraph
• Leslie Waddington: Gallerist whose superb eye and sense of ethics transformed London's art market | The Independent
• Manga fans mourned the death of Shigeru Mizuki (age 93), Japanese manga artist (GeGeGe no Kitarō, Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths, Showa: A History of Japan) died of a heart attack.  See:
• Shigeru Mizuki | The Telegraph
• Shigeru Mizuki's War-Haunted Art and Life | The New Yorker
• Shigeru Mizuki mourned: 'Death of a master' | BBC News

News: Images of Shigeru Mizuki and his work remembered on Twitter

My own personal loss in December was of my friend Robyn Sinclair who is known to many in the online art world.  You can read Robyn Sinclair: An Appreciation

November 2015

• Judy Cassab, (Judit Kaszab AO CBE age 95) - an Austrian-born Australian painter and Holocaust survivor who is the only woman to win two Archibald Prizes (1960, 1967)

Wish 'Lines and Colours' a Happy 10th Birthday

There are a very few art blogs which I have followed consistently in the last 10 years. One of them is Charley Parker's fantastic 'Lines and Colors'. It's a really class act!

The header for the Lines and Colors art blog - note the quotes!

There are very few people on the Internet who write with enthusiasm and real knowledge about an enormous variety of artists and illustrators past and present.

Charley writes about illustration from the 19th to the 21st centuries and art history generally with authority - and amazing links.  He really knows his stuff.

The only other blogger who comes close to him in terms of the contribution to art education is James Gurney (Gurney Journey) - but James tends to write shorter posts and to have a more practical oriented blog - awesome as it is.  They complement each other very well.

The Lines and Colors archive - accessed via the timeline archives in the left hand column in desk-top view - is truly amazing. Very little of it is time-specific (except when he is writing about exhibitions) so you can delve through the months and years of the last decade and come up with masses of material to inspire and educate.  Or alternatively focus on his categories (also in the left hand column) and learn about Drawing or Pen & Ink or Vision and Optics or Watercolor and Gouache or Webcomics etc.

I know I've found out about masses of artists for the first time on Charley's blog.

This is why he does it

When I was 10 or so, I came across some paperback reprints of the EC Mad comics from the 1950’s. These irreverent, hilarious comics, written by comic genius Harvey Kurtzman and maniacally drawn by Wally Wood, Will Elder and Jack Davis, popped the top off my impressionable little brain, and both my eyes and my world got significantly wider. (Those early Mad comics were outrageous, subversive and outside the mainstream in a way that’s hard to describe now. They were the visual equivalent to early Rock n’ Roll. See my post on Wally Wood.)


It was my first delicious “Wow, there’s a whole other world out there I didn’t know about!” moment (and what made me want to draw comics).


Moments like that have happened again as I’ve been dazzled by the discovery of new artists or genres that have sparked my imagination: mid ’60s Marvel superhero comics, late ’60s underground comics, the classic illustrators and pen-and ink artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries (particularly the Brandywine school), old master drawings, Dada, Surrealism, Impressionist painting, early 1900’s newspaper comics, 19th century academic painting, European comics, Chinese ink painting, Japanese Anime, digital concept art… – every one a revelation and a new world.


It’s my delight in that feeling of wide-eyed discovery that has prompted me to create Lines and Colors in August of 2005.


I’m not a critic. In fact, I may be more of an anti-critic. I’m only writing about things I like. It’s my hope that I can introduce you to some visual art gems that you may not be aware of, or perhaps tell you something you didn’t know about someone or something you’re already familiar with. (And maybe you can do the same for me.)

I hope, if he isn't already, that he's on the curriculum reading list for every illustration course.

I just wish he'd do a post about how he does that with the images! ;)

If you can spare a moment and have ever appreciated his work, can I suggest you leave him a comment today.
________________

I'm celebrating the 10th birthday of Making A Mark at the end of the year. I guess I'm going to have to decide which date I'm going for - the birth or when I went public and revealed I was blogging!

An Education in Classical Painting

While in Belfast I met John Angel, Head of the Angel Academy of Art in Florence and a prominent portrait painter.

This is a video of John Angel introducing the three year programme of work associated with developing skills in classical painting undertaken by the students at his school. The school teaches a traditional curriculum associated with Past Masters - identified by the School as being Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Titian, Caravaggio, Velasquez, Rembrandt, van Dyck, Lord Leighton, Alma-Tadema, Bouguereau and, more recently, Annigoni. Angel was himself taught by Annigoni and alluded to him a few times when discussing his own art education and his school.

This video is a very good overview of a number of techniques which people may be familiar with - but people may be very surprised how long his students spend on each stage of the curriculum. For example, they don't start on colour until Year 3!



Here also is a blog post by James Gurney about Academic Methods, Part 1: John Michael Angel

I had dinner with John and his delightful wife Megan on Wednesday evening (and there'll be a sketch about that later on my sketchbook blog).  Interestingly I discovered that his early education had been close to my own in Manchester - in adjacent neighbourhoods.

The School in Florence makes quite a contrast with the very modern Faculty of Art & Design and the Built Environment at Ulster University where we were doing the session for the Ulster Festival of Art & design

Faculty of Art and Design at Ulster University

PJ Lynch and John Angel in the entrance hall of the Faculty of Art & Design at Ulster University

On Thursday morning, I sat with John Angel on the same Panel for the discussion of 'Drawing Together' - which was absolutely excellent. My regards to John and all the other Panel participants:

• award-winning Irish Illustrator PJ Lynch (PJ Lynch) - think Irish version of James Gurney, 
• Theatre / Film Production Designer David Craig; 
• Artist and Art teacher Julie Douglas and 
• Bruce Ingman, Lecturer in Art and Illustrator of Children's Books (Twitter).

The cartoons of 'Je Suis Charlie'

We are now seeing the power of the pencil drawing over the gun.  People are fighting back with their pens and pencils.

Yesterday's terrorist atrocity in Paris has led to an outpouring of new cartoons being posted on Twitter - and pencils and pens being held up at demonstrations or surrounded by lights at vigils - all over the world, in many different countries.

These are images from the Je Suis Charlie demonstration in Trafalgar Square last night.

Here are some of the sites where you can see the cartoons which are being drawn for the murdered cartoonists, journalists and policement who were all doing their job in a country which prizes 'free speech' as an essential attribute of its democracy.

Slate is a French site which is collecting and posting cartoons in response to the events of yesterday as they are published - in Charlie Hebdo: les hommages en dessins aux dessinateurs tués

Some of the cartoons drawn after the massacre at and around the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris on 7th January 2015

Yesterday the Washington Post highlighted has the cartoonists' riposte to the atrocity in Paris in #JeSuisCharlie: Cartoonists react to the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris this morning. Lots of cartoons which 'hit the spot'.

The Daily Beast focuses on those cartoons in the newspapers which did not make it on to Twitter in World Cartoonists: Je Suis Charlie (Photos).

Vox has highlighted 12 powerful political cartoons responding to the Charlie Hebdo attack

Here are some of the ORIGINAL tweets - with links to the originators

I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.Voltaire

Le Figaro is a French daily newspaper founded in 1826.

Attentat de Charlie Hebdo : les artistes entrent en résistance http://t.co/h6QUV5aiJp pic.twitter.com/V2Z5Q4Tztl
— Le Figaro Culture (@Figaro_Culture) January 8, 2015

Here's the original by Lucille Clerc - a French Graphic designer / Illustrator / Printmaker with a studio near me in East London

Break one, thousand will rise #CharlieHebdo #JeSuisCharlie #raiseyourpencilforfreedom pic.twitter.com/3n5fOEmrwJ
— Lucille Clerc (@LucilleClerc) January 7, 2015

Satish Acharya is an Editorial cartoonist in Kundapura (in Udupi, India) who normally cartoons about cricket and Indian politics!

The little weapon! #CharlieHebdo #cartoon pic.twitter.com/VFFZD2f8Rz
— Satish Acharya (@satishacharya) January 7, 2015

David Pope is a political cartoonist at the The Canberra Times in Australia. He comments in a video here

It's absolutely outrageous that cartoonists should be targeted for drawing pictures

Can't sleep tonight, thoughts with my French cartooning colleagues, their families and loved ones #CharlieHebdo pic.twitter.com/LqIMRCHPgK
— David Pope (@davpope) January 7, 2015

Francisco J. Olea is a Chilean illustrator

#CharlieHebdo pic.twitter.com/jIBbrIShe8
— Francisco J. Olea (@oleismos) January 7, 2015

Jean Jullien is a French graphic designer currently living in London

I am devastated by what just happened in France. #CharlieHebdo pic.twitter.com/IxEbScqYFh
— jean jullien (@jean_jullien) January 7, 2015

Wolinski, Tignous, Charb, Cabu…Reposez en paix. Nous poursuivrons votre combat pour la liberté d'expression pic.twitter.com/XjiujHMHz2
— Alex Dobrowolski (@Alex_Dobro) January 7, 2015