50 Years: A Half Century of Illustrations by Bill Russell
This year marks my 50-year anniversary as an illustrator. To commemorate that milestone I’ll be posting a commissioned illustration from each of those years.
As I made a deep dive into the archives I realized a few things: I saw how my style has changed; my desire to make graphic, iconic work; and how committed I was to creating thought provoking narratives. I graduated in May 1976 from Parsons School of Design in New York City. I started my career in Toronto, dragging a huge portfolio of original art (mostly my class assignments) around to any art director who would see me. I was so naive yet persistent.
Here are galleries featuring one significant illustration from each of the past fifty years. I’ve listed the title of the article or ad I illustrated, the magazine or client I worked for and the name of the art director. I am grateful each person who guided and supported me along the way to 50 years.
1976-1980
1976: The Abortionist – Saturday Night Magazine
Within my first few months of showing work around town, I began receiving commissions from major Canadian magazines, including Quest and Saturday Night. For Saturday Night, I created a portrait of physician and abortion‑rights advocate Henry Morgentaler, depicting him suspended within an amniotic sac.
© Bill Russell
1977: Teaching in Germany – Maclean’s Magazine
In 1977 I was commissioned to do a lot of black and white spot illustrations. This one for Maclean’s accompanied an article about how Germany’s neo-facist politics were affecting teachers. Since I was exploring different pen and ink techniques, it made sense to appropriate the style of German Expressionist George Grosz.
© Bill Russell
1978: Freeing Up the Apartment Rental Market – Toronto Globe and Mail
A few years after graduating from Parsons in 1976, I was committed to a conceptual approach to illustration particularly influenced by the New York Times Op‑Ed pages. For The Globe and Mail, I created an image of a building with wings to accompany an article on Toronto’s rising rental costs.
© Bill Russell
1979: The Industrialist – Financial Post Magazine
By 1979 I was cross hatching….a lot. I spent many meditative (or rather laborious) hours dipping my crow quill pen into india ink and rendering my illustrations. I appreciated that art directors liked that style. Editorial art director Jackie Young was an advocate for me and many others in Toronto’s community of illustrators. He commissioned this one for the Financial Post. My father posed as a greedy industrialist.
© Bill Russell
1980: Life After Rape – Toronto Globe and Mail
Looking back at this 1980 illustration now, it feels a bit cringe‑worthy. It accompanied a story about rape and ran on New Year’s Eve on the front page of the Toronto Globe and Mail…probably not the most fitting moment for something this dark. A few of the panels in the four‑frame storyboard look a bit menacing. I photographed my girlfriend at the time to use as reference for the woman trying to make sense of what had happened to her.
1981-1989
1981: Police Informant – Readers Digest
By 1981 my pen‑and‑ink cross‑hatching had grown monotonous. But in this illustration for Reader’s Digest Canada, “The Police Informant,” I leaned into the dramatic light and shadow I’d always loved in film‑noir.
1982: History Professor U. of T. Graduate
No more ink and crow quill crosshatching for me. I started working in scratchboard, which is a white clayboard that I inked and chiseled into, like a woodcut. It allowed for some meticulous detail and a slim margin of error. It was also a versatile medium that allowed me to imitate various graphic approaches that fit conceptually for this portrait of a history professor in an olde English engraving style. This was commissioned in 1982 by the University of Toronto Graduate and art directed by Andrew Smith.
1983: Computer Landscape – PC Magazine
I moved to New York City in 1983 and circulated my illustration portfolio around, often leaving it overnight with art directors. Mary Zisk at PC Magazine soon commissioned me to illustrate a series of conceptual 2-page spread illustrations featuring IBM personal computers. My scratchboard technique was well honed by then, and I felt confident working in the medium.
1984: National Park Spots – Sierra Club Guides
In 1984, my former Parsons instructor Jean-Claude Suares hired me to illustrate a series of five National Parks books...more than fifty park icons and maps in all. It was a substantial, formative assignment that unfolded over three years. Shown here are icons for just four of the parks, clockwise from top left: Mammoth Cave, Acadia, Everglades, and Dry Tortugas.
1985: Deadman – Special Report
Back in 1985, Whittle Communications filled medical offices with their freely distributed magazines and hired an impressive roster of illustrators for the articles inside each. Special Report was one of them. Art director Mary Workman commissioned me to create a 37‑panel storyboard for James M. Cain’s short story Deadman, and I composed each like a film director—pure mise en scène. I carved into the scratchboard with an assortment of blades, even using a hacksaw blade to score dense, multi‑line textures.
1986: Nathaniel Hawthorne – Franklin Library
In 1986 I was commissioned to illustrate a selection of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short stories for the Franklin Library. The project let me sink into his shadowed, early 19th C. New England world. I researched the period architecture, clothing and even the furniture found in his candlelit interiors. In ‘Wakefield’ a man quietly leaves his wife without explanation and lives in hiding for twenty years, watching her life from a distance. I started using cut-down hacksaw blades as multi-line tools.
1987: Good Sport T-shirts Reactor Art+Design
In 1987, I illustrated a series of sports images for Good Sport, a line of T‑shirts and sweatshirts produced by Reactor Art Wear in Toronto. Designed by Louis Fishauf, the series ran for four seasons, with three new designs introduced each year.
1989: Six Blind Indians – Village Voice
This illustration for the Village Voice shows the metaphor of the six blind Indians. Each person touches only one part of the elephant. Each describes what they feel, but their description is shaped by: what part they're touching, where they happen to be standing, what they already believe and the limits of their senses. No one is wrong, but no one is complete either. It probably accompanied an article on subjectivity in politics.
1989: Chemist – Le Book
Created in 1989, this depiction of chemist Pierre Curie looking at a contact sheet in a photo lab was commissioned by agent d'illustrateurs Hugo Weinberg and used in a LeBook directory. I still use this on the homepage of my Billustration.com website.
1990-1999
1990: The Southern State – Wigwag
Wigwag was a beautifully crafted, art-filled publication, designed under the art direction of legendary illustrator Paul Davis. In 1990 he invited me to contribute several illustrations, among them a two-part short story by Alice Hoffman called ‘The Southern State’, it was nothing short of a dream assignment.
1991: Columbia Sportswear
In 1990, I was commissioned by Portland art director Kurt Hollomon to create a series of humorous prints for Columbia Sportswear, all centered on the company’s founder, Gert Boyle.
1992: Gerald’s Game by Stephen King – Viking Penguin
These two dark, interior images from Gerald’s Game belong to one of the three Stephen King novels I was commissioned to illustrate. The art director was Amy Hill of Viking Penguin.
1993: Spots – Esquire Magazine
By 1993 I was married, settled in San Francisco, and my freelance illustration career was humming along. My Toronto agent, Reactor Art + Design, kept a steady stream of advertising assignments coming in. I produced many spot illustrations for a travel‑book series from Berlitz, and I had reliable monthly work from magazines like Field & Stream, Outside, and Computerworld. I also illustrated a regular column for Esquire. These two spots, art‑directed by Amid Capeci, are from that period. I was adding color to my work using PhotoShop.
1994: MetroWerks Branding
MetroWerks built development tools for the new PowerPC‑based Macintosh computers. In 1994 I was hired by Paul LaVoie of the agency TAXI to provide illustrations for their branding. Here's Joe with their OS-X software. They used my imagery on displays, packaging, and even Hawaiian shirts.
1995: Salvage – Atlantic Magazine
This is an illustration from a series, for Atlantic magazine, about the experiences of a doctor in the Dachau Concentration Camp. The subject matter was emotionally demanding, and the work left a lasting impression on me.
1996: Hoodoo by Zora Neale Hurston – Oxford American
In 1996 I illustrated a Zora Neale Hurston short story for The Oxford American—a piece drawn from her fieldwork on Hoodoo. The story explores its rituals, practitioners, spells, and belief systems, offering a rare firsthand account of African American spiritual practice in the early 20th century. Hurston’s research is now considered foundational, preserving traditions that were often secretive, stigmatized, or misrepresented.
1997: Steam Whistle Brewing
The Steam Whistle Brewing Company of Toronto, Ontario needed a drawing of their facility, located in the converted locomotive roundhouse near the base of the CN Tower. They continue to use it on packaging and advertising graphics. The project was art directed by William Grigsby with package design by Noel Fenn. The logo is by Rene Zamic.
1998: Peregrine Investments
Back in 1998, Peregrine Investments, a Hong Kong–based firm, required some soaring peregrines for a series of ads. This is just one.
1999: The End of the Reform Party – The New Republic
I illustrated several covers for Jon Houston at the New Republic. The one I like the best has a unique concept: Portraits of 1999 Reform Party presidential candidates Pat Buchanan, Ross Perot and former wrestler Jesse Ventura as floundering bees.