To me, watching the cover of a new book take shape is one of the most exciting parts of the publishing process—the moment when you begin to see the story come alive in someone else’s imagination. And I couldn’t have been more charmed when I saw the cover art created by UK-based illustrator Lucy Truman for The Fresh New Face of Griselda. It perfectly captures Griselda’s uncertainty, but I also her quiet courage and determination. I was thrilled when Lucy agreed to share a little about her creative process:
Before Andy Warhol was a “pop art” painter, he drew shoes. Lots and lots of shoes. He also famously said, “we will all be world famous for 15 minutes” (or at least, he’s purported to): a prediction that has eerily enough become almost true. Fashion illustrator Lucy Truman(@lucytruman_illustration) shares how she got her start, and about the people who have inspired her along the way.
Lucy Truman Draws Inspiration from Travels in Mumbai
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Illustrator Lucy Truman shared a recent travel sketchbook series created during a visit to Mumbai.
Travel journals regularly form the foundation of Lucy’s finished editorial and narrative illustration work. Drawing on location remains central to her practice, allowing spontaneous interactions and unexpected ideas to shape the development of each piece. During her time in Mumbai, her sketching took her from dawn markets to museums and even a visit to Elephanta Island. These observational sketches later evolved into limited-palette illustrations focused on scenes of everyday life and inspired by real moments encountered throughout the city.
Capturing Venice: Lucy Truman’s Inspired Travel Journal Series
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IllustratorLucy Trumanrecently shared Part Two of her travel journal series, this time taking us along the historic canals of Venice, Italy. Working on-location to capture the city’s soft architectural tones and shifting light, Lucy uses these spontaneous sketches as a vital foundation for her finished editorial and narrative illustrations.
We celebrate illustration titan Brad Holland, a bastion of true human creativity and resilience. A self-taught visionary, Brad reshaped the landscape of modern visual commentary through his personal experiences and depth of thought. He insisted on painting his own ideas, single-handedly pioneering a fiercely intellectual and metaphoric approach to editorial art.
I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen. Illustration: Walker Publishers / Jon Klassen
‘I am very serious about being silly’: children’s illustrators on the art of storytelling
From The Twits to The Gruffalo and an angry bear in search of his hat… Quentin Blake, Cressida Cowell, Axel Sheffler, Lauren Child and more reveal how they bring children’s books to life
Spread across a sprawling 17th-century industrial complex in London’s Clerkenwell, the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, which opens next month, is being billed as the largest institution of its kind anywhere in the world: a permanent national home for an art form that shapes everything from children’s books and political cartoons to animation, fashion, advertising and digital culture. Part museum, part gallery and part creative laboratory, the centre represents an extraordinary attempt to drag illustration out of the margins and finally place it at the heart of British cultural life.
During a recent visit to The National Museum of Wales we got to view the Quentin Blake Exhibition. This has been running from July 16th and goes through until November 20th and celebrates the wonderful work of the popular author and illustrator. The exhibition is free, as in entry to the museum itself, and is located upstairs. We enjoyed looking at the many works of Quentin Blake, discovering his various work tools, film footage of him working and exploring the artwork. In a large, open and bright area of the room was a long table with books illustrated by Quentin with paper and colouring pencils for visitors to try their hand at their own illustrations.
“A is for AMY who fell down the stairs. B is for BASIL assaulted by bears.” These were the first sentences I read by Edward Gorey, whose last name seemed too delightfully perfect to be real, like Lemony Snicket. I was in a bookshop in London, holding a novelty copy of The Gashlycrumb Tinies, an abecedarian in which each letter reveals the grisly and somehow perversely delightful death of an unfortunate child. Clara wastes away; Desmond, perhaps mercifully, is tossed from a sleigh; Olive, infinitely unlucky, is run through with an awl. It was like reading bedtime stories for semi-adults, and it was too glorious not to purchase. It was the kind of cute-brutal book that ironically seemed like it might cheer the right kind of wrong person up on a bad day, not unlike Tim Burton’s Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy.
“Many of Edward Gorey’s most fervent devotees,” Stephen Schiff wrote in a profile of the artist in The New Yorker in 1992, “think he’s (a) English and (b) dead. Actually, he has never so much as visited either place.” Alas, he has now visited at least one: Gorey—born nearly a century ago, on February 22, 1925—died in 2000, leaving behind a vast catalogue of work—the macabre, deadpan, funny and sometimes brutal illustrations and short narratives for which he has become a cult icon—and a mysterious personal legacy.
From James Bond movies to pulp novels, artist Robert McGinnis illustrated the allure of the man-eating femme fatale.
Paul Kennedy
28 July 2025
The original movie poster for 1965's Thunderball highlights McGinnis's art. Image courtesy: Heritage Auctions.
Long before then-presidential candidate Jimmy Carter shocked the world by admitting in a Playboy magazine interview that he had “lust in his heart,” there was artist Robert McGinnis, who, since the late 1950s, had lust in his illustrations.
Original artwork by George McGinnis for the James Bond movie "Thunderball." Courtesy of Propstore.com
James Bond Original ‘Thunderball’ Movie Art Sells for $335,500
The movie poster illustration for the 1965 Bond movie starring Sean Connery by famed American artist Robert McGinnis leaves bidders “shaken and stirred.”
16 January 2024
American artist and illustrator Robert McGinnis has created more than 1,200 memorable paperback book covers, as well as several iconic movie posters, but it was his original movie poster illustration for the 1965 James Bond classic, “Thunderball,” that left bidders shaken and stirred. The illustrator’s artwork from the film starring Sean Connery sold for $335,500 at Propstore Auctions in November.
The artwork depicts James Bond (Sean Connery) standing before the scantily-clad Fiona (Luciana Paluzzi), Domino (Claudine Auger), Patricia (Molly Peters) and Paula (Martine Beswick) with his harpoon gun and Bahamian cocktail in hand. At 8 1/2" x 16", the piece is rendered in oil and gouache on illustration board.
An example of the art McGinnis created used in a movie poster for "Thunderball." Courtesy of Heritage Auctions
In addition to his work on James Bond films, McGinnis (American, 1926) has several iconic movie posters to his credit, including Breakfast at Tiffany’s(1961) and Barbarella (1968). His work for the James Bond series led producer Barbara Broccoli to say, “[McGinnis] captures the wit, excitement, and adventure of Bond in a series of brushstrokes.”
Robert McGinnis’ original movie poster illustration for James Bond’s “Thunderball” leaves bidders shaken and stirred at Heritage Auctions.
Paul Keneddy
12 October 2022
American artist and illustrator Robert McGinnis has created more than 1,200 memorable paperback book covers as well as several iconic movie posters, but it was his original movie poster illustration for the 1965 James Bond classic that left bidders shaken and stirred.
