Cristina Penescu

Cristina Penescu, Scratchboard Illustrations

Cristina Penescu was born in Bucharest, Romania, 1988. Her family relocated to California when Cristina was a year old. Cristina has experimented with a variety of mediums and styles and recently has made the transition to realistic wildlife art, which she feels has always been her true calling in life. Cristina is has had no formal training and is a self-educated artist. She has experience working in a variety of mediums, however she prefers acrylic and scratchboard. Her artwork is very detail oriented and she aims to bring the viewer an up close, intimate look at nature. She recently was accepted as a Signature Member of the world-renowned Society of Animal Artists. Cristina is also a member of Artists for Conservation and the Marwell International Wildlife Art Society.

Scratchboard is a little known medium made up of a 1/8″ masonite panel that is covered with smooth white clay and coated with a fine layer of india ink. The artist uses a sharp knife to scratch every single detail and hair by hand. A single scratchboard piece can be made up of tens of thousands of tiny scratches layered atop one another.

Hannes Binder

Scratchboard Illustrations by Hannes Binder

Hannes Binder is a Swiss artist born in 1947. He studied art at a college of arts and crafts in Zurich, worked as a commerical artist in Milan, and then as an illustrator and commercial artist in Hamburg. He lives in Zurich and works as a freelance illustrator and painter.

Hannes Binder’s graphic novel, “Roman in Bildern”, was published in 2002 in Germany to critical acclaim. The original text of the 500 page novel was retold in a graphic format using his dramatic and impressive engravings. This story is also the subject of a Japanimation television series.

Nicolas Delort

Illustrations by Nicolas Delort

Nicolas Delort is an award-winning illustrator currently living in the grey suburbs of Paris. Gathering inspiration in the daily and mundane as well as books and any kind of narrative medium, Nicolas endeavors to tell stories, big and small, by working on strong, evocative and intricate black and white compositions.

His work has received the Gold Medal from The Society of Illustrators, and has been recognized by American Illustration, 3×3, Juxtapoz, Supersonic Electronic and This Is Colossal. Some of his clients include Blizzard Entertainment, Games Workshop/The Black Library, Quirk Books, Tor.com and Solaris Books.

Mark Summers

Mark Summers, “Centaur”

Mark Summers 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 illustrateing two book of his own. 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.

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