28 April 2014

Illustrator Captures The Lives Of Famous People Through Their Belongings



John Lennon



Australian illustrator James Gulliver Hancock, who previously drew these intricate building-filled maps and sketched every building in New York City, has a new book that captures the lives of 50 well-known personalities through their belongings.



Titled Artists, Writers, Thinkers, Dreamers: Portraits of 50 Famous Folks & All Their Weird Stuff, it features illustrations of everyone from Barack Obama to Marilyn Monroe, painting intimate portraits of them, from their quirky habits to their favorite foods.



In an interview with Fast Company, Hancock said he was inspired by his observations of people in New York City, and started making “little make-believe maps of the people I saw, inventing what they did, what they ate, their favorite food.”



He pitched the idea of turning his drawings into an illustrated compilation of fun facts about famous people to Chronicle Books, and the book was born.



Check out some of Hancock’s illustrations below and head over here to purchase the book.





Oprah Winfrey





Barack Obama





Elvis Presley





Frida Kahlo





Marilyn Monroe





Queen Elizabeth I





Michael Jackson





Abraham Lincoln





Madonna





Martin Luther King Jr









[via Fast Company, images by James Gulliver Hancock]