Inside Story: The best illustrators

Stanley Donwood

More of a fine artist than illustrator, Stanley Donwood, 38, created the artwork for Radiohead's album sleeves. The man himself is not one naturally drawn to the limelight. For years, the only way to contact him was to fax his local pub in Bath, from whence any communication would be forwarded to him. Much of Donwood's work delights in rediscovering antiquated processes. A recent series of images, London Views, created a panorama of the capital out of 14 pieces of hand-cut linoleum, printed on a Victorian printing press. His latest work, If You Lived Here You'd Be Home By Now (recently shown at the Lazarides Gallery in London's Soho), comprises a series of darkly compelling etchings that used the century-old photogravure technique.

Tom Gauld

Tom Gauld is a 30-year-old illustrator and comic book artist who lives and works in London. With Simone Lia, whom he met while studying at the Royal College of Art, Gauld publishes a series of delightful, poignant comics under the imprint Cabanon Press. His subject matter is a long way from the superhero deeds that many associate with the genre, retaining a very British reserve that grounds the extraordinary in the everyday. Just check out his treatment for the cover of a special Penguin edition of Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers (pictured above). His commissioned illustrations have appeared in The Guardian, Time Out, New Scientist and Prospect.

Nicholas Saunders

While at Nottingham Trent University, recent graduate Nicholas Saunders developed an interest in screen printing as a reaction to the increasingly digital world. Screen printing is an inherently messy, inky business, but perhaps seems a little more real than the computer-generated work so prevalent today. Shown here is a spread from one of his final year projects: a book inspired by Edward Lear's poems. "I have taught myself how to screen-print, book-bind and brown-nose, so I feel I have most of the skills I need," Saunders says.

Karen Caldicott

Although capable of working in a multitude of styles, Karen Caldicott has found a niche rendering celebrities in plasticine. The unique portraiture won her a year-long commission from New York magazine creating weekly likenesses of the rich and famous for its listings pages (shown here is Apple's Steve Jobs, made for Fortune magazine). Born in England, the 47-year-old moved to the US in 1987 and lives in New York state. Fancy a plasticine bust of yourself? Caldicott also accepts private commissions.

Christoph Niemann

Conclusive proof that Germans do have a sense of humour, 36-year-old Christoph Niemann has been a fixture on the pages of The New York Times for 10 years, and commissions in the UK have included work for The Drawbridge and Management Today. After studying in Stuttgart, Niemann moved to New York in 1997, where he now lives with his wife (a journalist) and two young sons. One of the latter was the inspiration behind Niemann's first children's book, The Police Cloud, published in March this year. Each night, Niemann's son Arthur would insist that he tell him a story combining the unlikely characters of a cloud, a helicopter, the police and the fire department, his obsessions at the time. Out of this challenge came the book in which, of course, the aforementioned cloud becomes a New York cop.

Paul Davis

The enfant terrible of UK illustration, Paul Davis' artfully artless style has won him commissions all over the world, from Channel 4's annual report to ads for a Japanese hairdressing school. Davis combines a seemingly naïve technique with a knowing wit. A favourite target is the emptiness of modern life: one solitary figure is captioned, "He doesn't use a Gillette Mach 3. He's failed in life and nobody likes him anymore". He is drawings editor of Drawbridge magazine.

James Jarvis

James Jarvis, 36, was raised on a diet of Richard Scarry, Hergé, Asterix and Judge Dredd. In 1998, Jarvis created a plastic toy figure, Martin, for the uber-trendy London-based fashion company Silas – thus helping kick-start the "Designer Toy" phenomenon, whereby young men in unfeasibly expensive trainers spend small fortunes on dolls. Jarvis's trademark lantern-jawed characters have appeared in advertising campaigns for Nokia and Sony as well as in The Face, Vogue and The Independent, but find their purest expression in his series of self-published comics. The latest, Vortigern's Machine, co-written with Russell Waterman, is slated to be the basis for a feature film by a major studio.