The bulk of this short essay was gleaned from an interview with Nick Dewar in 3x3 magazine(https://www.3x3mag.com/index.html )shortly before his death.
Nick studied illustration in Glasgow where his tutors had a specific idea of what illustration should be "Quentin Blake-inspired drawings of newts done using Quink and bleach. Conceptual illustration was dismissed as design masqeurading as illustration". Upon leaving art school Nick began building a new portfolio from scratch,he wished to tell stories with his own voice. His editorial work was used by all the so-called "big names" Harpers Bazaar,New York Times,Wall Street journal etc.
Nick and his wife travelled extensively and he believed his experiences whilst doing so had a profound impact on his work and the way he would approach a brief,having, he said "met all humanity had to offer: love;hate;humility;curiosity;humour;honour and deceit."
His drawings were a combination of line work(to define form) and solid tonal areas(to define volume) his compositions often appeared glacial and calm,inhabited by well tailored chaps and coiffered ladies,but this was a concious ploy by Nick to lull the viewer into a false sense of security which would be pricked by closer observation of the image,defined by the line work. His colour pallette had a muted 1950's tone to it which added to the 50's all American appearence. Nick worked initially in ink and gouache and laterly in ink and digital,which is ideal for his use of large areas of block colour.
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