Spanish illustrator Rafa Alvarez has an impressive selection of works on his website. I like the way he sometimes uses coloured ink lines, almost like those in many animated films. There are nice strokes in his lines too. He has a good knack for well thought out editorial illustrations as well as advertising posters and comic strips.

Rafa’s clients include Playboy Magazine, Etihad Airways and American Express. He has published graphic novels and children’s books and is currently working on interactive ebooks for the iPad.

Clever, exciting and amusing; Marcos Chin’s work definitely exudes all of these. He is a multi-award-winning illustrator, with honours from The Society of Illustrators New York, and Los Angeles, as well as the Society of Publication Designers. His understanding of illustration is such that he also lectures throughout the US and abroad, and he currently teaches illustration at the School of Visual Arts in New York.

Clients include The New Yorker, Playboy and the Financial Times.

Born in London, David Wright was only 13 when he left school and eventually joined his uncle, who was an artist for The Graphic newspaper. He really came into prominence when he was commissioned to produce a series of “lovelies” for The Sketch. His glamorous pin-ups, were amongst the most popular during world war II. Following his Sketch contract Wright went on to work for magazines such as Men Only, Playboy and Esquire. September 1956 saw the first publication of Carol Day, a daily comic strip illustrated by Wright and scripted by Peter Meriton. The series was about a fashion model, and ran in the Daily Mail from 1956 until his death in 1967.

A good place to see some of his work for Carol Day is on Comic Art Fans and carol-day.com. David Wright’s work will be featured in the upcoming issue 2 of illustrators quarterly.

I remember one of my university tutors saying, “if you can illustrate realistically you will always be in demand.” Well, Francis Vallejo has mastered realism and is one very busy illustrator. He is consistently working on personal and commercial projects, as well as teaching at The Art Department. His clients include Playboy, Snapple, ImagineFX, and has been published in Spectrum, Totoro Forest Project book, and Dolor. What I think I really admire more then the anatomic accuracy is the expression and energy he manages to bring into his work. The be best place to find out more about Mr. Vallejo is over on his blog.