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Illustration Now! Portraits
The art of The spectrum of today’s portraiture, from caricature to realism The field of illustration has flourished over the last decade, with professionals working both by computer and by hand. In illustration, the single most challenging and captivating subject has been the portrait, frequently used in editorials, advertising, products, and most recently, being the subject of major exhibitions. The book gathers together the exclusive (and frequently unpublished) portrait work of over 80 illustrators from all over the world, many of whom were featured in Illustration Now! , including Aaron Jasinski , André Carrilho, Hanoch Piven, Anita Kunz, Jody Hewgill, and Dugald Stermer . The book also features an index of subjects and an introduction by Steven Heller. Text in English, French, and German
- GenresArtNonfiction
416 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2011
About the author
Julius Wiedemann
113 books21 followersJulius Wiedemann was born in Brazil, where he studied design and marketing, and has lived and worked in Japan, Germany, and the UK. An eclectic expert on design based visual culture, Wiedemann has produced books on a range of topics, from robots to record covers. He holds the positions of Executive Editor for Design and Pop Culture at TASCHEN. Wiedemann studied graphic design and marketing and was an art editor for newspapers and design publications before joining TASCHEN in 2001.
Wiedemann has edited over 40 books in 10 years, he is a regular contributor to magazines, and has been on the jury of several awards all over the world. His publications have sold more than 1.5 million copies worldwide, and his titles are immensely popular. As an editor his work is grounded in an interdisciplinary approach to contemporary design, synthesizing a vast array of topics, including logo design, fashion design, graphic design, web design, and product design. Underpinning many of his books is a desire to understand creativity and explore the nature of reality in a world that increasingly takes place online and is populated by characters and creatures not entirely human but of our creation. The wonders of animation, manga, and computer graphics fascinate and inspire him.
Julius Wiedemann’s TASCHEN titles include the celebrated series Illustration Now! a staple of any designer’s bookshelf, as well as the compendium 100 Illustrators. He has also edited the Package Design Book collection. His award-wining Jazz Covers and Rock Covers books showcase his editorial variety and his publication on National Geographic magazine’s infographics demonstrates how wide his design knowledge and appreciation extends.
Wiedemann has edited over 40 books in 10 years, he is a regular contributor to magazines, and has been on the jury of several awards all over the world. His publications have sold more than 1.5 million copies worldwide, and his titles are immensely popular. As an editor his work is grounded in an interdisciplinary approach to contemporary design, synthesizing a vast array of topics, including logo design, fashion design, graphic design, web design, and product design. Underpinning many of his books is a desire to understand creativity and explore the nature of reality in a world that increasingly takes place online and is populated by characters and creatures not entirely human but of our creation. The wonders of animation, manga, and computer graphics fascinate and inspire him.
Julius Wiedemann’s TASCHEN titles include the celebrated series Illustration Now! a staple of any designer’s bookshelf, as well as the compendium 100 Illustrators. He has also edited the Package Design Book collection. His award-wining Jazz Covers and Rock Covers books showcase his editorial variety and his publication on National Geographic magazine’s infographics demonstrates how wide his design knowledge and appreciation extends.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 14, 2012
(More pictures on my blog)
Illustration Now! Portraits is a stunning collection of portraits. The book's a thick 416-page paperback.
87 illustrators are featured. That's a lot of different styles to check out, much more than I imagined. The selection is really diverse and the quality high. It's quite an impressive feat collecting them into this handsome volume.
The portraits are created in all sorts of medium, including sculptures. There are watercolour, oil, vectors, digital paintings, etc.
This should be a particularly useful reference for illustrators who draw portraits regularly, especially for editorial publications.
September 12, 2020
I liked the showcasing of different artist and different mediums, I haven't found it personally very inspiring, however, that is incredibly individual and vary from person to person. Not a bad one, though!
November 24, 2013
One of the reasons I'm glad i missed art school is that I haven't picked up on the type of pretentious jargon that is littered throughout this book. Alright, the theme is that these clever artists are looking beyond their photographic source material to capture some elusive essence of their models. Therefore their work is better than a cameras. Fair enough. No more words. Some great work in this book from... Jorge Arévalo, David Despau, Carmen Garcia Huerta, Tiago Hoisel, Josie Jammet, Kako, Christopher Kasch, Liz Lomax, Gildo Medina, Roberto Parada, Dominic Philibert, Deanna Staffo, Frankie Watt and Silke Werzinger.
January 26, 2020
Nice collection of various styles of illustration portraits. I'd welcome more text and descriptions of authors and styles, but except this it's inspiring book.
May 11, 2023
I feel that I would’ve enjoyed this book more 10 years ago in my art class when they asked me to do a self portrait, then again maybe it would’ve tainted my artistic freedom.
The reason for such a low rating is because I found that they should’ve had more historical portraits and maybe explained the history of portraits and what it has become now. Everything felt dated due to this. Most portraits in this book date from 1995-2013.
In addition to this, I felt a bit cheated because the main reason why I bought this book (since it was sealed in plastic wrap I couldn’t even sneak a peak) was due to its cover. The version I have is the hardcover one with the painting “The Birth of the Domesticated” (2012) by Gary Baseman. And yet, this painting, nor any other paintings by Baseman, appeared in the book. Perhaps they chose that painting as the cover illustration because it’s a painting that’s flashy and sticks out, or perhaps it’s a self portrait of the artist? Be what it may, I felt it was a book with good reference pictures but with not enough context of why they were chosen by the author.
The reason for such a low rating is because I found that they should’ve had more historical portraits and maybe explained the history of portraits and what it has become now. Everything felt dated due to this. Most portraits in this book date from 1995-2013.
In addition to this, I felt a bit cheated because the main reason why I bought this book (since it was sealed in plastic wrap I couldn’t even sneak a peak) was due to its cover. The version I have is the hardcover one with the painting “The Birth of the Domesticated” (2012) by Gary Baseman. And yet, this painting, nor any other paintings by Baseman, appeared in the book. Perhaps they chose that painting as the cover illustration because it’s a painting that’s flashy and sticks out, or perhaps it’s a self portrait of the artist? Be what it may, I felt it was a book with good reference pictures but with not enough context of why they were chosen by the author.
April 16, 2018
Un libro lindo en el cual se muestra, desde diferentes técnicas y perspectivas de los artistas, el arte de los retratos.
July 5, 2013
Thank you library and library display that put this in front of me. I liked reading the one-sentence "mission statement" each artist had to write and judging it. Also seeing if I thought the artists' styles matched where they lived, and whether I could guess the media used. Fine lunchtime entertainment.
July 17, 2023
A very interesting and diverse reference for contemporary art portraits. A compilation of many illustration styles. Exactly what you expect when you buy a Taschen book.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews