Posts from — December 2009

An exhibition called Only Young Twice: The Lively Art of Quentin Blake is at the Chris Beetles Gallery in St James’s, London, from this Sunday (December 13) until January 9. The show will feature 90 new drawings and watercolours drawn from Blake’s recent work, from book illustrations to murals. For more details, visit chrisbeetles.com

Bloghorn noticed today that the bumper Christmas TV guides are in the shops and that, as usual, many of them have covers featuring illustrations rather than photographs. With the Radio Times, above, you even get two drawn optons.

It’s rare to see cartoons and illustrations on magazine covers in this celebrity-driven age. There are a few notable exceptions, magazines such as The Week and The Oldie, but you don’t generally see them on the cover of TV guides any more except at Christmas.

Clearly magazine editors believe the public still has a sentimental attachment to cartoons and illustrations, which is why they are brought out at this time of the year. Bearing in mind this attachment, Bloghorn believes it would be nice if editors did not just consider drawn covers for the festive season, why not let your readers see more great artwork between New Year’s Day and Christmas Day?

Editors take note: Cartoons and illustrations are for life
… not just for Christmas.

Is taking a holiday in December but please do explore the archives of our featured artists and the portfolio site for our members which you can find here.

The 14th Annual Winter exhibition is under way at the Illustration Cupboard Gallery in London. It runs until January 31 and admission is free. For more details, visit the website.

Left: Yorkshire Gothic by Michael Salter of Aardman Animation.

Spotted by Tim Harries.