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