About Illustrated Journalism

My Substack is for lovers of art, illustration and visual journalism. It’s for sketchbook keepers and urban sketchers. Telling stories using images that inform is not a new thing, but I think it’s important that these visual journalists be acknowledged. I write about the work of great artists and their legacy in Histories of Reportage. I also write and show some of my own reportage drawings, and others in Illustrated Journalism.

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About Bill Russell

I’m from a small town near Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I grew up watching American television and looking at American art and illustration. I moved to New York to earn a degree in Illustration from Parsons School of Design. After graduation I became an illustrator for books, magazines and advertising. I continued my freelance career in San Francico. I was also hired as an Adjunct Professor of Illustration at the California College of the Arts and a staff artist at the San Francisco Chronicle.

I work in a variety of creative skill sets, as an illustrator, designer, painter and visual journalist. I’ve had artist residencies at Recology in San Francisco and at the Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, California. I call my drawings reportage or visual journalism since they usually contain a narrative. You can see them on social media, like Instagram. You can purchase my cards and original art on Etsy and on the All Things Bill Store.

I like this Substack platform. As a kid I never wrote much. But now I do. My writing has gotten better with every post and I'm proud of that.

If you’d like to know more about my journey, here’s an interview I did with art and design writer Steven Heller. I live in a restored Eichler home in Marin County, California. I also can do a 45-minute Keynote presentation at your art school or journalism school about some of the famous and infamous reportage artists of the past. If you’d like more information about my talks just email me here.

Check out my websites: Reportage | Instagram | Fine Art | Illustration | All Things Bill Store