I’m just guessing, but I have a notion that Seattle based illustrator Kathryn Rathke’s early fascination with art may have coincided with an interest in hand calligraphy.
Her drawings, both black and white and color, are based on wonderfully calligraphic lines — dancing, looping and jogging across the page; at times almost seeming to construct an image in their wake as a byproduct of their movement.
I don’t know whether she works in traditional media or works digitally with a stylus and tablet, but she prepares her finals in Photoshop or Illustrator.
Along with well spotted blacks and judicious applications of fresh color, the fluid and playful character of her lines, in the tradition of line wizards like Al Hirschfeld and Saul Steinberg, gives her images an additional level of visual interest beyond their immediate impact.
Rathke’s clients include The Washington Post, The Village Voice, Vanity Fair, The Economist, Time Warner and Paramount Pictures.
