Illustration
Related: advertising - Art Deco graphics - illustrated newspaper - printmaking - drawing - engraving - poster - graphic design
List of illustrators: William Blake - Honoré Daumier - Ernst Haeckel - Constantin Guys - Roland Topor - Gustave Doré
Sea anemones from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur (Artforms of Nature) of 1904.
Illustrated London News
The illustrated newspaper was the television of its age, creating an impact by giving a new dimension to the news. This lively form of journalism presented the news of the world at large, using artist-engravers as illustrator-writers, an early version of correspondents. --printsoldandrare.com [Dec 2004]
The Birds of America (Color lithographic plate 321) (1836) - John James Audubon
John James Audubon (April 26, 1785 – January 27, 1851) was a Franco-American ornithologist, naturalist, and painter. He painted, catalogued, and described the birds of North America. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_James_Audubon
Théophile Alexandre Steinlen (French, 1859-1923), Chat Noir, color lithograph, a poster advertising an event at the Chat Noir, a Paris cabaret from 1881 to 1897.
Image sourced here.
Orlando Furioso (1877) - illustration by Gustave Doré
Definition
An illustrator is a graphic artist who specializes in enhancing written text by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicated concepts or objects that are difficult to describe textually, or the illustration may be intended for entertainment, as in greeting cards, or cover art or interior art for books and magazines, or for advertisement, as on posters.
Most contemporary illustrators make their living creating artwork for use in advertising, newspapers and magazines. Pen and ink and airbrush artists traditionally dominated this realm.
Computers dramatically changed the industry, and today computers are used to produce most of the commercial illustrations. The most commonly used computer applications are Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. Corel Painter is popular with artists desiring in a traditional media style. Also gaining popularity are 3D computer graphics programs.
However, traditional illustration techniques are still popular, particularly in the field of book illustration. Watercolour, oil painting, pastels, wood-engraving, linoleum cuts, pen and ink are some of the techniques used by successful exponents of the art. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illustrator [Feb 2005]
Artforms of Nature (1904) - Ernst Haeckel
Art Forms in Nature: The Prints of Ernst Haeckel (1998) - Ernst Haeckel [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (February 16, 1834 — August 8, 1919), also written von Haeckel, was an eminent German biologist and philosopher who promoted Charles Darwin's work in Germany. Haeckel was a zoologist, an accomplished artist and illustrator, and later a professor of comparative anatomy. He was one of the first to consider psychology as a branch of physiology. He also proposed many now ubiquitous terms including "phylum" and "ecology." His chief interests lay in evolution and life development processes in general, including development of nonrandom form, which culminated in the beautifully illustrated Kunstformen der Natur (Art forms of nature).http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Haeckel
See also: fantastic art - illustration - 1904 - color - lithography - nature - biology
William Blake: The Complete Illuminated Books (2004) - William Blake
William Blake: The Complete Illuminated Books (2004) - William Blake [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
See entry on William Blake
your Amazon recommendations