SUMMERS Mark

SUMMERS Mark

This Torontonian is a prominent artist working in the scratchboard medium a rarely used technique. He takes an artist’s black Bristol board and uses a sharp instrument to scratch and define the subject he is illustrating. He was taught the technique by the legendary editorial cartoonist Duncan Macpherson who was his idol. Macpherson was a guest lecturer at the Ontario College of Art in 1976 when Summers was a student there. Summers remembered, “He was extremely helpful and gave me a lot of encouragement.”

After he graduated in 1978, he did freelance illustrating for Maclean’s, Radio Guide, Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail, New York Times, Chicago Sun-Times, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, Time and Vanity Fair. He wanted to portray authors and so about 1985 he took his work to the art director of the New York Times Book Review. At the time the Review was experimenting using illustrators outside New York. As a result, Summers was hired to do highly stylized portraits of authors in scratchboard and became a regular. Also noteworthy, was his decade long collaboration with book retailer Barnes and Noble doing the portraits of famous authors that decorate the walls of its stores,

He has illustrated books including heritage volumes from authors like Charles Dickens, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe,

For his work he has received 350 awards including the Hamilton King Award from the Society of Illustrators in New York.

WORK:

ILLUSTRATOR:

BOOK TEXT:

Content novel & Cover dust jacket:

God Bless Us Every One! Writ., Andrew Angus Dalrymple. Methuen Publications, 1985.

PERIODICAL TEXT:

Content essay:

Radio Guide, 5-6, June 1985: “The Inside Dope”. Writ., William Deverell: 7.

Content essay & Cover front:

Globe & Mail: Broadcast Week Magazine, Aug. 27/Sept. 2, 1983: “A girl approached with the magic phrase …”. Writ., Unknown: 29.

Cover front:

Maclean’s, 18 November 1996.

NEWSPAPER:

Content essay:

Globe & Mail, 17 March, 1980: “Out-of-this-world living”. Writ., Unknown: 7.

SOURCE:

Article newspaper:

The Toronto Star, 2 Dec. 1995: “Making their mark.” Writ., Michael Hanlon: K5.

Internet:

societyilustrators.org/award-winners/mark-summers. Accessed 4 March 2024.

GALLERY:

A magazine cover with a person and person

Description automatically generatedGlobe & Mail: Broadcast Week Magazine, Aug. 27/Sept. 2, 1983: Front cover.

A book cover with a group of people

Description automatically generatedGod Bless Us Every One!, 1985: Dust jacket front.

A group of people in a room

Description automatically generatedGod Bless Us Every One!, 1985: 2.

 

A black and white illustration of a person in a boat

Description automatically generatedRadio Guide, 5-6, June 1985: 7.

A magazine cover with a person on the cover

Description automatically generatedMaclean’s, 18 November 1996: Front cover.