Frank Quitely

"The Sandman: Endless nights" Published by Neil Gaiman and DC Comics 2003. Illustrated by Frank Quitely

Frank Quitely is a comic book and graphic novel illustrator from Scotland. He is a large influence to alot of my illustration work because of the high quality of the illustrating that he does.
The name "Frank Quitely" is a play on the phrase "Quite Frankly" and isn't his real name at all. It was actually a name that he used to stop his family from relating any of his work that they might see with him for fear that they would be offended or disapprove, but the name stuck and he uses it for all his illustrating. He begun his career illustrating for lesser known comics and a couple of self published works but moved on to working for Darkstar and working on things like X-Men and Batman. I've never known Quitely for his work with the comic book heroes style of book because it isn't really something that interests me. Instead, I actually found him through a collaboration with Neil Gaiman in a 'Sandman' story called 'Endless Nights'. I immediately loved his style of illustrating and the way that he lays out each page so interestingly. His attention to detail is really impressive and his characters have a really human character about them which a lot of comic style illustrators fail to achieve. Unlike a lot of comics, his work in this 'Sandman' book didn't have frames to break up different aspects of the page. This creates a really appealing soft gradient between different parts of the page and makes each look more like a work of art than a comic book story.

"Batman & Robin #5" Illustrated by Frank Quitely

Frank Quitely recieves quite alot of unnecessary criticism for his work because of the methods he uses to create his illustrations. Instead of using india ink to outline his pencil drawings like older style comic artists, he uses a computer to scan the image and then gives it the outline style using software like Photoshop.
I don't honestly see why anyone has an issue with this. In my mind it sounds like an easier way to produce the things that he wants to in a primarily digital age.