Friday, December 1, 2017

Artist of the day, December 1: Mark Summers, Canadian illustrator (Ontario)

Mark Summers is a Canadian illustrator who works in the time-honored, but infrequently used, medium of scratchboard, he has been a full-time freelance illustrator since graduating from the Ontario College of Art in 1978. He has devoted the past 35 years of his career to the technique of scratchboard, a onetime popular medium which had become all but obsolete by the mid 70’s. Author and illustration historian Steven Heller credits Summers giving the medium a second life.

Mark’s career started off primarily in the newspaper industry, with clients like the New York Times, the Chicago Times, the Wall Street Journal and many others, but quickly moved into all forms of publication. He has worked for every major magazine, and has contributed work for Rolling Stone, Newsweek, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated and numerous covers for Time.

He has also written and illustrate short articles for Vanity Fair. Mark has contributed covers for most of the major publishers in the world and has collaborated with James Michener and Issac Asimov amongst others. He has also done lavishly illustrated volumes of Poe, Dickens, “Moby Dick”, “Gulliver’s Travels” as well as writing and illustrating two book of his own. Mr. Summers has also designed and published 16 stamps for the United States Postal Service, as well as The Royal Mail and Canada Post. His work is best remembered for his decade long collaboration with Barnes and Noble, where he created the visual persona of their stores, doing portraits of famous authors that decorated their walls.

For his work Mark has received 6 medals from the Society of Illustators in New York and was given The Hamilton King Awards for best illustration in 2000. At last count he had received just over 350 awards at home and globally. Mark’s list of clients is large and far reaching. He has done work for Ford Motor Company, Pacific Bell, Seagrams and for clients as far away as Dubai and China.


 Yoko Ono for The Last Word / RollingStone
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

Steven Tyler  for The Last Word / RollingStone
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

Lenny Kravitz for The Last Word / RollingStone
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

Florence Welch for The Last Word / RollingStone
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

James Taylor for The Last Word / RollingStone
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

Phil Lesh for The Last Word / RollingStone
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

 Kid Rock for The Last Word / RollingStone
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

Jim James for The Last Word / RollingStone
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

Lucinda Williams for The Last Word / RollingStone
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

Rachel Maddow for The Last Word / RollingStone
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

Donald Fagen for The Last Word / RollingStone
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

Stevie Nicks for The Last Word / RollingStone
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

Stephen King for The Last Word / RollingStone
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

Will Rogers
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

Wilbur and Orville Wright, Wright brothers
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

The General Charles de Gaules
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

Leonardo da Vinci
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

 Billy Gibbons
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

David Crosby
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

Bob Weir
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

Eric Church
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

Jeff Bridges
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

 Noel Gallagher
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

Bonnie Raitt
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

 Michael Moore
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

  Lyndon B Johnson
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

Dr. Seuss
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

James Joyce
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

Robert Frost
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

 John Widtsoe
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

 Orson Pratt
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

 Edgar Allan Poe
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

 Joseph Conrad
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

Virginia Woolf
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

 William Butler Yeats 
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

 Kurt Vonnegut,  Jr   
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

 James Michener   
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

 Humpty Dumpty  
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

 The 3 greats  
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

Universal Studio 
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

Oprah Winfrey 
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

 Neil Patrick Harris
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

 Lady Gaga
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

 Jeff Bridges in Tron
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

HUMPHREY BOGAR
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

 Edward James Olmos
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

Flight of the Concords
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

Sir Elton John
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

Clark Gable
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

Avatar in 3D
© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved


© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

© 2017  Mark Summers. All rights reserved

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