ILLUSTRATION NOW!

By SCOTT MURRY

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To all the naysayers and evildoers who've anticipated the supposed death of original, lively illustration, I say, "HA!" The spirit of these creative minds will not be stopped. They acknowledge your digital means, and will incorporate them into their drawings, breathing life into a static age of overly polished vector-alysis. Their work can be seen not only on your printed pages, but swarming onto your shoes, sheets and coffee cups. This collection of 150 illustrators shows these warriors across the globe creating with their hearts and minds, and defying odds. Each spread gives us a peep show of an artist's work with mini-bios and their creative artillery, helping visualize their process.

I appreciate that they also don't stick to one style or medium; there are artists represented from all fields and flares. Doug Alves combines loose, elegant India ink drawings with sleek photography and photoshopped textural backdrops. Seonna Hong's painterly aesthetic creates morose characters you feel connected to. Robert Rauschenberg has informed her illustrations, which breach both commercial and fine art. Frenchman KOA has fluid, extremely poppy linework and monster imagery.

Not a collection of illustration representing stodgy Rockwell and Pyle replications, this book is fresh work by artists who refuse to let their pencils stop pole-dancing in the face of a digital era