Meanwhile, the influence of Aubrey Beardsley is plain to see
in illustrations by Rohan Eason. The content and actual drawing style in
Eason’s images might be different, but like Beardsley he works in black
and white, crafting his images with great attention to the line while
seeking to balance the composition in a similar way.
For Eason, the influence is more than just aesthetic – a lot of
it comes from Beardsley’s drawing skills. “I follow the idea that the
more I learn the better I will be, and I think Beardsley too was striving
for a point of perfection,” he says. “There is a real backlash against the
overly conceptual and hands-off nature of today’s world. Real skills are
becoming more and more important, and that’s what I want to have, a
great skill.”
The influence of Arthur Rackham is easy to detect in Hannah Magee’s imaginative
and moody artwork, such as this image entitled Great Lost Lake.
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There is a sense of them being ‘inside’ the story and
of the exercising of their talent and skills in service
of the story.
Grahame Baker Smith
Even in artists whose work outwardly makes little or no visual
reference to the Victorian era, there is still great appreciation of the
drawing and painting techniques used in the late-19th and early 20th
centuries. Grahame Baker Smith uses 21st century Photoshop to
concoct his fantastical images, yet he harks back to Edmund Dulac’s
paintings. He points out Dulac’s wonderful draughtsmanship, how the
artist drew hands and coloured his images. Plus, according to Baker
Smith, Dulac could play the nose flute.
“If I were to illustrate Edgar Allen Poe or the Little Mermaid I
don’t think it would look anything like a Victorian illustration,” he says.
“What I do hope would be apparent is their commitment to the work
and the telling of the story. That is one of the most inspiring features of
these artists, there is a sense of them being ‘inside’ the story and of the
exercising of their talent and skills in service of the story.”
It’s within the stories depicted by the illustrators we’ve spoken
to that the imagination is allowed to thrive. Modernism, postmodernism
and umpteen other ‘isms’ might have come and gone since the Victorian
period, but in today’s world there remain parallels with the 19th century.
Lightning-fast communication and global economics might rule our
destinies, but isn