Richard Allen (Illustrator)

Richard William Allen (born November 2, 1964 in Newbury , Berkshire ) is a British wildlife illustrator . He specializes in wild birds .

Life

Allen received an undergraduate degree in art and design from Brighton Polytechnic in 1984 . In 1987 he earned a Bachelor of Arts in graphic design from Kingston Polytechnic . In 1988 he won second prize in Reader's Digest magazine 's Young Illustrators Competition . In 1993 British Birds magazine voted him “Bird Illustrator of the Year”. From 1999 to 2005 he designed a regular garden column for the British newspaper The Times with his illustrations. In 2002 he was runner-up in the Wake up to Birds competition of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds . In 2015 he won the Society of Wildlife Artists' PJC Drawing Award . He has been an elected member of the Society of Wildlife Artists since 2016.

In 1987, Allen became a freelance illustrator, initially working in advertising, publishing, packaging, and newspapers. He started with the Grattage but then switched to watercolor and later to oil painting . Since the late 1980s, his main focus has been on the illustration of ornithological books. These include, among others, Where to Watch Birds in Dorset, Hampshire & the Isle of Wight (1989) by George Green and Martin Cade, Essex Bird Report 1988-94 , Handbook of the Birds of the World (Volumes 4 to 6), Sunbirds: A Guide to the Sunbirds, Spiderhunters, Sugarbirds and Flowerpeckers of the World (2001) by Robert A. Cheke and Clive F. Mann and A Field Guide to the Birds of South East Asia by Craig Robson. Allen mostly draws the birds in the wild. To do this, he made trips to China , the United States , South Asia , Senegal and many European countries.

Allen does not limit himself to the animal world in his illustrations. His portfolio includes, among other Olympic stamps, medieval monasteries, Iron Age - barrows and hiking maps for the British TV magazine Radio Times . His illustrations can also be found in the magazines British Birds , Birdwatch and Birding World .

Illustrated works

• George Green, Martin Cade: Where to Watch Birds in Dorset, Hampshire & the Isle of Wight , 1989
• Josep del Hoyo , Andrew Elliot , Jordi Sargatal (Eds.): Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 4: Sandgrouse to Cuckoos. 1997.
• David W. Snow , Christopher M. Perrins : Birds of the Western Palearctic , Concise Edition, 2 volumes, 1998
• Josep del Hoyo, Andrew Elliot, Jordi Sargatal (Eds.): Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 5: Barn Owls to Hummingbirds , 1999
• Craig R. Robson : A Field Guide to the Birds of South-East Asia, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia , 2000
• Robert A. Cheke, Clive F. Mann: Sunbirds: A Guide to the Sunbirds, Spiderhunters, Sugarbirds and Flowerpeckers of the World , 2001
• Josep del Hoyo, Andrew Elliot, Jordi Sargatal (Eds.): Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 6: Mousebirds to Hornbills , 2001
• Craig R. Robson: A Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand , 2002
• Graham Austin, Mark Collier, Neil Calbrade, Colette Hall: Waterbirds in the UK 2006/07 The Wetland Bird Survey , 2008
• Susan Myers: A Field Guide to the Birds of Borneo , 2009
• Guy Dutson: Birds of Melanesia , 2011
• Deepal Warakagoda: Birds of Sri Lanka , 2012
• Richard Grimmett, Carol Inskipp, Tim Inskipp: Birds of the Indian Subcontinent , 2012
• Johannes Erritzøe , Clive F. Mann: Cuckoos of the World , 2012
• Richard Allen: Coastal Birds , 2014
• Josep del Hoyo, Nigel Collar (Ed.): HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World: Volume 1: Non-Passerines , 2014
• Richard Grimmett, Carol Inskipp, Tim Inskipp, Hem Sagar Baral: Birds of Nepal , 2016
• Phil Gregory : Birds of New Guinea: Including Bismarck Archipelago and Bougainville , 2017
• Laurence Rose: The Long Spring - Tracking the Arrival of Spring Through Europe , 2018
• Phil Gregory: Birds of Paradise and Bowerbirds , 2020

literature

• John E. Pemberton: Who's Who in Ornithology , Buckingham Press, 1997. ISBN 978-0-95149-658-9 , pp. 19-20

Web links

• Richard Allen: Wildlife Artist and Illustrator (Official Website)
• Literature by and about Richard Allen (Illustrator) in the WorldCat bibliographic database