Go Graphic

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

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.”