Atmospheric illustrations for Penguin spy novels

Brighton based Matt Taylor's range of atmospheric illustrations for a reissued series of spy author John Le Carre's novels really do make it hard not to judge a book by its cover.

Taylor says the inspiration for these vector style covers come from both Americana-inspired illustrations and his love of 1950s and '60s classic comic books. The process of creating these distinctive illustrations starts with conventional pencil and paper before working up with pen, scanning into Illustrator, and finally ironing out the details in Photoshop.

Taylor's style, combined with a great sense of composition, really does make his a name to watch out for in illustration circles; follow him on Behance, Twitter or Facebook. The illustrator currently works with the likes of Adidas, Google and The Wall Street Journal, not to mention a wallpaper he created exclusively for Creative Bloq readers here.

For more of Taylor's work check out his recently revamped website.

Words: Alex Williamson

Alex Williamson is an art and design student in London, who blogs about design, art and illustration. Follow him on Twitter.

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Have you seen an inspiring book illustration? Tell us about it in the comments below!