Mark Summers is a Canadian illustrator who works in the time-honored, but infrequently used, medium of scratchboard. (See my posts on Virgil Finlay and Elizabeth Traynor.)
There is just something about the balance between black and white and the characteristics of the scratched lines that gives well-done scratchboard drawings a particular appeal. Summers is one of the best modern practitioners of the art.
He has done illustrations for major publications like Time and The Atlantic Monthly and has received three gold medals from the Society of Illustrators and was the recipient of the Hamilton King Award in 2000.
Summers is also the artist for the Barnes and Noble bookstores’ literary figures portraits. You can see them in the Prints and Posters section of the online bookstore.
Though he doesn’t seem to have his own dedicated site, you can see his work on the Richard Solomon Artists Rep site. (Click on his name in the right hand column to launch the portfolio in a pop-up window.)
Wonderful work. I have always been amazed with the drawings you have done. Even when you were very young you showed an tremendous talent.
Good for you.
Michael
Do you know if Mark Summers has a website or email address where I may contact him?
Vincent Juchimek
The only way I know to contact Mark Summers is through his artists representative, Richard Solomon.
- I am his sister in law and so astounded at Mark’s talent . BRILLIANT
Cheers
Thanks for the comment, Shelly. Many of us who are artists and illustrators arequite astounded by Mark’s abilities as well.
I’m a cataloger for UCR Library, and the Eaton Collection for science fiction, etc., and among our duties, we give credit where credit is due! One of our recent titles, Beyond Human, has a cover art done by Mark Summers. Trouble is, we cannot make Mark’s name unique to our catalog without a birthdate (month, day, year) and or a middle name. I’d love to be able to give proper credit, can someone out there help me out?
Many thanks in advance!
JD Ree
In the mid-70s while Mark was at the Ontario College of Art, I was the news editor at the Ryerson school paper. Mark drew 4 political cartoons for me during that period. Through all the moves I have made over the last 30+ years I have always retained those drawings which I now have beautifully framed - 2 hang in my home office, 2 hang in my rec room. They are my favourite pictures.
Very cool! Thanks for the note.
The weblink does not seem to work for barnes and noble. i cant seem to find the posters he has done on there at all. does anyone know other places that may have those? i’m using mark in a lesson plan for my art class and would love to be able to find those.
My birthdate is April &, 1955.
Thanks for the kind comments and interest.
Mark has been one of my longtime favorite artists. His work has been inspirational since I was a student at Center For Creative Studies in Detroit Michigan (about 15 years ago). I actually had the pleasure of interviewing him over the phone for an Illustration class. A year later he flew to Detroit to present his work at our school. Recently I saw his portrait of President Elect Obama in Rolling Stone Magazine. I’m still inspired.
Thanks for the background, Darryl.
Other readers can see Darryl Swiatkowski’s portfolio of illustration and digital imaging here.
My wife found a drawing signed by Mark Summers. It might be a print, it might be an original, I do not know. I don’t know if it is the same Mark Summers or not. It looks the style. It is black and white and looks like a tree growing in a river. It has a Scripture: Psalm 1:2,3 written out on the bottom. The back is signed “Mark Summers A Knight of the King. We just want to know who the artist is.
Thanks
Great illustration in the new Rolling Stone magazine of Obama. I’m glad to see you’re working. Happy new year!
First, excuse my English. In the purpose to write a bibliography on Edgar Allan Poe in Canada, I shall like what’s the newspaper or review the Poe’s caricature of the illustrator Mark Summers have been published, for the first time, thus which the date of publication? Is it possible to buy in poster format this caricature?
Mario,
I’m not certain, but I think the Poe illustration shown here was created for Barnes and Nobel as part of a series illustrations of famous authors done for displays in their stores.
The article about this that was at one time on the Barnes and Noble website is no longer available.
Hello,
I’m trying to compile a list and a collection of stamps issued by the USPS using the scratchboard technique of Mark Summers.
My search has yet to identify a complete grouping of those issues.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
Off the top of my head, the stamps would be;
General Stilwell
Hattie Caraway
Claude Pepper
Edna Ferber
Wilma Rudolph
Jonas Salk
Albert Sabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Margaret Chase Smith
James A. Michener
Edward Trudeau
Mary Lasker
And the recent set of four of Abraham Lincoln.
Hey!
I am a design student at The International Academy of Design and Technology in Seattle. I am working on an assignment for an Illustration class and was assigned Mark to research for a presentation. I just wanted to say that I have really enjoyed researching his work and have been inspired to keep creating and trying new techniques. I’m really interested in trying out scratchboard!