Go Graphic
Artists & Illustrators|February 2019

The end of the golden age of illustration forced CHRIS FORSEY to take his fine art seriously. RACHAEL FUNNELL finds out why he’s never looked back

Rachel Funnell
Go Graphic

Inspiration struck this artist from an unusual source: his first forays into art were made using butcher’s paper. “I was encouraged to draw by my grandfather, who would supply me with blood-spattered meat wrapping paper,” says Chris. “I would draw on features to create figures and scenes. It was great fun.”

Despite his flair for animating the mundane, Chris was not a creative child prodigy. He was jealous of a gifted student in his art class. “I can still remember his name!” he adds. On his father’s advice, he attended a three-year graphics course in Bristol in pursuit of career security, but an offer of a trial at an artist’s studio in London, just a month after completing his course, allowed him to pursue his passion for illustration instead.

The artist enjoyed almost two decades of steady business before illustration’s golden years came to a sudden end. “I worked on everything from geophysical diagrams to children’s book illustrations but, in 1996, it was as if the shutters came down. I suddenly found that I had no work,” says Chris.

This dramatic dive in commissions forced Chris to foreground his painting. “I started out as a watercolourist,” he says, “and took to it like a fish to water, because I could take a much looser approach. As an illustrator I was very controlled, but I wanted to be freer as an artist.”

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة February 2019 من Artists & Illustrators.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة February 2019 من Artists & Illustrators.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

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