Guy Billout

Hergé (1907-1983) for the detail of the works in The Adventures of Tintin[2]
Raymond Savignac (1907-2002) French Poster Artist[3]
André François (1915-2005) French-Hungarian Cartoonist[3]
Ronald Searle (1920-2011) British Illustrator[3]

In 1969, New to United States and inexperienced as a professional illustrator, he showed an illustrated story about a young artist and his obsession with America which used a mix of comic pictures, photographic collage, watercolor, colored pencil and ink[6] to Milton Glaser, the design director of New York magazine at the time. Glaser loved them and published the entire portfolio.[3]

Billout's first assignment for Redbook magazine came from art director Bob Ciano the same year as he arrived, in 1969.[2] After that, the illustration world opened up to the young artist.[6]

Throughout the 1980's and 1990's Billout was given total editorial freedom by The Atlantic Monthly with a bi-monthly column that became an integral part of the magazine’s editorial voice for 24 years.[3][2] The artist considers this series to be his most significant works.[3] Thanks in part to this regular exposure, he was soon one of the most sought-after illustrators in North America.[2]

Billout's client list includes The Atlantic, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Oprah, Travel & Leisure, Business Week, Fortune, Time and many others.[2]

In 1973, Billot's first children's book, Number 24 was reviewed by New York Times Book Review author Selma G. Lanes, who called it "a surreal work, as mysterious as a roomful of René Magritte paintings." His first book contained no text.[4]The New York Times would list it as one of the top ten illustrated children's books of the year.[7] Published under the imprint of Harlin Quist, three editions of the book were issued in the same year it was printed. In 2010 a digitized version for DVD would be released with a musical score, produced by Label Frères and Patrick Couratin, titled Bus 24.[8]

Billout added words to his second book released six years later in 1979, By Camel or by Car: A Look at Transportation. According to Connie Tyrrell in School Library Journal this book featured works "simple nearly to the point of austere yet meticulous in detail, with a bold use of color".[4]

Billot would follow up the following year with his third book, Stone and Steel: A Look at Engineering. Paul Goldberger, writing in the New York Times Book Review, lamented that Billout's failure to incorporate much factual information in his brief text in Stone and Steel would frustrate young readers.[4] Regardless, Billout's Stone and Steel would be listed as one of the top ten pictures books of the year by the New York Times.[7]

Thunderbolt and Rainbow: A Look at Greek Mythology, Billout's forth book released in 1981 depicts a modern-day Manhattan inhabited by the gods of the ancient Greeks. "The writing is swift and unfailingly interesting," wrote a critic for Publishers Weekly. The New York Times review commented that "Thunderbolt & Rainbow convinces us that the Greek gods and goddesses have indeed taken up residence in Manhattan, and that like so many other immigrants they feel perfectly at home."[9]Thunderbolt and Rainbow would be selected by the American Institute of Graphic Arts for recognition.[4]

In Squid and Spider: A Look at the Animal Kingdom, released in 1982, Billout singles out thirteen animals and places them "in unusual situations or habitats that will get observant readers giggling, thinking, or both," reported Ilene Cooper in Booklist.[4] The New York Times would list Squid and Spider on the Ten Best Illustrated Books selection for that year.[7]

More than ten years would pass after the publication of Squid and Spider before Billout's sixth book The Journey: Travel Diary of a Daydreamer in 1993. Writing for School Library Journal, Susan Scheps wrote the book works best as "a collection of unusual illustrations that could provide inspiration for creative writers or daydreamers of all ages."[4]

Something's Not Quite Right, published in 2002 challenges readers to find the out-of-place element in each illustration, with the contrary detail sometimes being the picture's single-word description itself.[4]

In The Frog Who Wanted to See the Sea, released in 2007, monumental landscapes dwarf the main character Alice, a little green frog. Writing for the New York Times, Bruce Handy commented "it’s lovely, with folk tale overtones and illustrations kids and adults can lose themselves in." The Frog Who Wanted to See the Sea was listed as one of the top ten picture books by the New York Times for 2007.[10]

A limited archive of the artist's work commissioned by the publication between 1997 and 2007 is stored by The Atlantic

• Squid & Spider, Gold Medal, Society of Illustrators
• The Frog Who Wanted to See the Sea, Silver Medal, Society of Illustrators
• What's a Trillion? American Illustration 34, 2014
• State Secrets, Society of Publication Designers Distinctive Merit, 2008, for The New Yorker, art director Chris Curry[11]
• A Strike in the Dark, Society of Publication Designers Distinctive Merit, 2008, for The New Yorker with art director Chris Curry[11]

The Smithsonian holds seven works by Billout from the years 1980 through 1986[12], all gifts from Time magazine

• Why We Worry About The Wrong Things, December 4, 2006, Time magazine
• Quadrature, 1998, The Paul J. Getty Museum

• EXTRAordinary Images, École Estienne (Paris), 2016
• Atelier An. Girard Gallery (Paris), 2015,[16]
• Des Equilibres at Galerie Petits Papiers Gallery, 2012, sixty works between 1987 and 2012[17]
• University of Massachusetts, 2006[18]

Early illustrations by the artist were done with watercolors and brush and later in his career Billout began using an airbrush. Many years later, he gradually adopted Photoshop.[3] Rough drafts are made on copy paper using a Pilot Razor Point Pen.[21]

The work of Billout is founded in strict attention to the details of the subject matter he is addressing. The artist goes to enormous lengths, visiting a site, photographing details, obtaining documents on the subject in order to obtain exacting representations of what is being portrayed. Judy Garlan, art director of The Atlantic through the 1980's and 1990's said that when commissioned to illustrate a piece featuring the Rock of Gibraltar, she asked the artist to change the angle of the iconic rock face to make it a more prominent feature of the final illustration. Billout is reported to have agonized over this and finally made the change to the art, only to hear that a sailor later complained that the depiction of the landmark was completely inaccurate.[2]