22 September 2024

King Dido (Panther/Granada - 1972)

1972

Original artwork

"....King Dido was an interesting job..... art director Dave Larkin, told me I could do something 'a' bit different' if I felt like it', 'nothing abstract' ...just 'something to give it a slightly different 'look' compared to other covers..... I just simply put a white line around the main man, to 'lift him out' of the background.. which again was from old photos of the very poor area of London's East End, which I found in a fascinating book I bought in a Charing Cross Road bookshop.."

(Michael Johnson, September 2024)

Courtesy of Michael Johnson

29 August 2024

Artist's Bio on Illustration Art Gallery

Artists\ Biographies on the Illustration Art Gallery

Michael Johnson biography

Studied Painting and Sculpture at York School of Art, England. Spent his early years as freelance, and worked mainly on artworks for magazines, advertising and book illustration in England and the rest of Europe. An accomplished and adaptable book and magazine illustrator with bags of experience.

Magazine illustrations include: Sunday Times, Telegraph, Observer, Woman's Own, Mirror, Harpers & Queen, Motor, Good Housekeeping, Nova, Penthouse, Stern, Bunte, Constance, Swensk Damtid Ning.

Worked for Advertising Agencies and Design Groups in London, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Stockholm, Oslo, Brussels, Amsterdam, Milan, Paris, Lyon, Marseille and Nice.

Worked with many publishers including Penguin, Pan, Granada, Collins, Fontana, Panther, TransWorld, Dragons World, Arrow, Hamish Hamilton, Readers Digest, Dorling Kindersly

Late 1960s and Early 1970s: Contract with German advertising agency (H.B.U. Dusseldorf) as consultant Art Director and Illustrator, working on experimental three dimensional artworks used in market research.

Paintings published as prints by Paul Hamlin, Frost and Reed (England) and Scandecor (Sweden), a series of five girls' heads in the Top Ten best selling list (1980s).

Exhibited with the "Quichua" painters group in Provence (landscapes and nudes). Worked on publicity material for Bernardo Bertolucci, Stephen Spielberg, Walt Disney Productions.

Portrait Commissions include: H.R.H. The Prince of Wales, Aristotle Onassis, Al Capone, President Kennedy, Sir Lew Grade, Barry Norman, Sybilla Edmondstone, various fashion models.

Over the years has had seven books published:

Angela's Rainbow (Dragons World, 1983)

A story of beautiful girls journeying through time and space, based on the Sakti Shiva story in Indian mythology.

Fantastic Paper Gliders 1 and 2: Two books of paper gliders to make and fly designed by the author.

Paper Planes 1 and 2: Two books of classic aeroplanes to be made up into flying scale models.

Flying Dinosaurs: Flying scale models of pterodactyls.

Birds of Provence (Barthelemy 2000) guide book.

Worked on specialised architectural illustrations for various developments in the South of France, one in Saudi Arabia. This, in turn have led to commissions (Aerial views) of private houses and gardens.

Commissioned to produce large undersea paintings showing sunken ships, also several large aircraft paintings of corporate jets flying over specific landscapes.

Worked with Sir Norman Foster on a book entitled "Aeroplane" (following a similar concept as the book produced by Le Corbusier in 1925), tracing the history of man's early attempts to fly, through to the most advanced developments of today.

In 2001, conceived and designed a book based on the Japanese "Shunga" books (erotic art) of the 17th century, 25 drawings and 50 sketches were produced.

In 2002 – 2005, conceived and illustrated a fantasy book and film scenario, based on the 11th century journey of Berengaria (later the wife of Richard the Lion Heart) from Provence to the south of Spain.

Source: Michael Johnson website

See illustrators issue 4 for a Michael Johnson feature article.

27 August 2024

Hodder 1967

Originally a Harold Robbins story illustration for Stern magazine 1967.

Thanks to Tim Smith.... again.

26 August 2024

Corgi Books

1967

1966

12 June 2024

With Woman in Mind (Hodder 1965)

Thanks to Tim Smith.

"I remember the models. but not the name of the main girl at the front...very nice , from central London., lived in Soho... girl in striped dress, Suzy Kendal (became an actress later). Man behind her - Geoff Wootton (became a model agent later.). Girl on left , head down, Nancy Edgerton. Man at back - Renato [Fratini]."

05 June 2024

Sibylla Edmonstone

1968

"This is an artwork I did for Sibylla Edmonstone in the late 60s.. for a [African children] charity auction she had in the night club in London named after her (Sibylla's)...

I did it in exchange for using the portrait i painted of her as a print for Frost and Reed in Bond Street......."

"..I delivered it to her personally, on the morning of the auction, ..in the famous 'Sibylla's' club near Piccadilly."

3D image for a charity auction

Opening Night At Sybilla's

Dancers at the opening night of Sybilla's discotheque in Swallow Street, London, 22nd June 1966. Among the dancers are pop singer and manager John Gaydon, socialites Jane and Victoria Ormsby-Gore, daughters of Lord Harlech, Ingrid bett and Sybilla Edmonstone, after whom the club is named. The club is part-owned by George Harrison of The Beatles. (Photo by John Downing/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)Ingrid Bett)