British Illustrators: 38 Dave Gibbons and Watchmen

Together with British writer Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons created what I feel is one of the greatest graphic novels of all time, “Watchmen”, which was later made into a film. Although the film deviated a little in script from the story, visually it was incredibly faithful to Dave Gibbons original illustrations, which pretty much says all you need to know about their effectiveness.

Dave Gibbons first came to prominence working for the seminal British comic of the 70s, 2000 AD. The best known serial of this comic was Judge Dredd, which later became a couple of lacklustre movies. I first came to know his work on the comic strips within the early issues of Doctor Who Magazine. In the early 80s Dave Gibbons went to work for DC Comics, which led to collaborations with fellow Brit Alan Moore, and eventually the masterpiece that is Watchmen.

British Illustrators 37: William Stobbs and Scottish Folk Tales

William Stobbs was a Greenaway Medal winning artist and illustrator throughout the second half of the 20^th century. During the 1950s he was the head of the design department of the London School of Printing and Kindred Trades, and later on became the principal of the Maidstone School of Art.

He won the Greenaway Medal in 1959 and unusually two of his books were cited – an edition of a short story by Chekov (the Russian writer, not the USS Enterprise’s helmsman) called Kashtanka, and a book called A Bundle of Ballads

This is actually a copy of an illustration he made for a book of Scottish Folk Tales, and it just really does it for me. Who wouldn’t want to read a story which has an illustration like this accompanying it?

British Illustrators 36: Charles Keeping

Charles Keeping was another Greenaway Medal winner. Charles Keeping first came to prominence illustrating some of the historical novels of Rosemary Sutcliff. He actually won two Greenaway Medals, one for his own story, “Charley, Charlotte and the Golden Canary”, and one for his illustrated edition of Alfred Noyes’ poem “The Highwayman”.

Keeping served in the Royal Navy during World War II, having joined at the age of 18. After the war he studied Art part time and then full time, and from the 50s until his death in 1988 he worked for many outlets, including Punch. In 1956 he was commissioned to illustrate Rosemary Sutcliff’s “The Silver Branch”. His success saw him commissioned to illustrate others of Sutcliff’s novels and also those of Henry Treece and others.

I’ve chosen to copy an illustration Keeping made for an edition of “The Jungle Book”. The most complicated parts were the trees and foliage in the background. Two different graphite pencils – a 6B for lighter shading and a 2B for darker shading – really gave this texture – it looked nothing like as good with just the ink marks.

British Illustrators 35: Sir Frank Brangwyn

Largely self-taught Sir Frank Brangwyn produced over 12000 works during his lifetime in his career as painter, print maker, designer and illustrator between the end of the 19^th century, and his death in 1956. By the middle of the 20^th century he was one of the most popular and successful British artists of the time.

In the nearest city to where I live in Wales, Swansea, there is a large gallery and performance space named after him, the Brangwyn Hall. It is so called because it contains a number of murals he painted which were commissioned for, then rejected by the House of Lords in Westminster. Their loss was Swansea’s gain.

In 2006, when I was staying in Leeds, Yorkshire, to take part in a popular television quiz show, there was an exhibition of Brangwyn’s work in Leeds’ magnificent Town Hall. I knew next to nothing about him, but was bowled over by what I saw, not just his illustration work, and his graphic work, but also by some of his incredibly vibrant and joyous paintings. This is a copy of his painting “A Street Scene in Tangiers”. The original is an oil painting, while I used acrylics, and a canvas only about half the size of the original. It must have taken well over 10 hours for me to paint this, but I thoroughly enjoyed the process. 

British Illustrators 34: Judith Kerr

The late Judith Kerr, who passed away in 2019, will always be remembered for the ever popular “The Tiger who came to Tea”. She also created the Mog series, and wrote “When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit”. She had personal experience to draw on for that book, since she was born in Weimar Germany, but her parents both knew that Nazi success in the 1933 elections could spell potential disaster for a Jewish family such as themselves, and the family moved to France before settling in Britain.

Judith Kerr became a naturalised British subject, and married Nigel Kneale. That name might not mean a great deal to you if you’re not British or of a certain age, but he wrote “Quatermass” which was the first TV science fiction serial to gain mass appeal in the UK, and led to 3 spin off films. Their son, Matthew Kneale is no mean writer himself. He wrote an excellent historical novel “English Passengers” which I can thoroughly recommend. Coming back to “The Tiger Who Came To Tea”, it was published in 1968, and has remained hugely popular ever since. Judith Kerr created the story after a visit to the zoo with her three year old daughter. It took her a year to make the book, and it has since become one of the best selling children’s books of all time. 

British Illustrators 33: Edmund Dulac and The Little Mermaid

Edmund Dulac was actually born French, but moved to England in his early 20s, and became a British citizen in 1912.

On arrival in London, Dulac was commissioned to illustrate Dent’s edition Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. He worked for the Pall Mall Gazette, and then was commissioned by Hodder and Stoughton to illustrate a number of books, including the works of Hans Christian Anderson, from which I have tried to copy an illustration he made of the Little Mermaid.

When I look at Dulac’s illustrations for this and other books I am struck that he works in a similar style to his contemporary Arthur Rackham. After the first World War there was much less demand for illustrated picture books of the style he had been producing before, and so he moved into other areas, such as newspaper caricatures, portraiture and theatre design. Like later illustrators Ralph Steadman and Gerald Scarfe, Dulac also illustrated postage stamps for the Royal Mail.

British Illustrators 32: Edward Burne Jones

Burne-Jones is associated with both the Pre Raphaelite-Brotherhood, whom he admired tremendously in his early years, and also with the Arts and Crafts Movement. He was a pre-eminent artist in the field of stained glass, and also a founder member, with William Morris, or Morris’ decorative arts firm. As well as his own paintings, and his work in the field of stained glass and of design, Burne-Jones also illustrated a number of works for Morris’ Kelmscott Press. In this illustration, copied from an illustration of the Kelmscott’s Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, Burne-Jones’ distinctive almost medieval style is a perfect match for the subject matter.

Burne-Jones was very influential on the next generation of artists and illustrators in England as well. The teenage Aubrey Beardsley made a speculative visit to Burne-Jones’ home, and showed him sone of his sketches. Burne-Jones allegedly told him that he was not in the habit of advising young people to become artists, but he had no choice but to do so in Beardsley’s case. Quite right too. In the 1890s he became something of a pillar of the establishment, being made a Baronet (A baronetcy is a hereditary knighthood – an ordinary knighthood passes away on the death of the recipient.)