ABOUT THE ARTIST
Gerard Fay
Story-led illustration shaped by more than four decades of professional experience.
I create cinematic book covers and commissioned narrative artwork for authors, publishers and magazines. Character, atmosphere and emotional clarity remain at the heart of every image.
FOUR DECADES OF COMMISSIONED WORK
A career built around visual storytelling
After leaving Salford Art College in the late 1970s, I began working as a freelance illustrator. Before graduating, I travelled to London and signed with an artists’ agent on Wardour Street in Soho — quite an introduction to the professional art world for a seventeen-year-old working-class lad from Manchester.
Over the decades that followed, I worked with magazine publishers, advertising agencies and design studios across the UK, Ireland and Scandinavia. The assignments changed, but the central challenge remained the same: communicate a story clearly, create atmosphere and give the viewer an immediate emotional connection.
Published Experience
More than forty years of commissioned narrative artwork
Work created for publishers, authors and magazine fiction, with particular experience in character-led scenes, historical detail, visual hierarchy and editorial reproduction.
Bringing stories to life
Much of my professional life has been spent illustrating magazine fiction and editorial features. I have always been fascinated by the relationship between character, setting and narrative — and by the way a single image can suggest an entire world beyond the page.
One editorial colleague described my work as helping to “bring the stories to life.” That observation has stayed with me and continues to guide the way I approach every commission.
From editorial art to book covers
Today, alongside commissioned fiction illustration, I create atmospheric, story-led book covers for authors and publishers. The same principles apply: a clear focal hierarchy, convincing period detail and an image that gives the reader an immediate sense of mood and genre.
I also revisit selected work from my archive, adapting and presenting it for new audiences while preserving the narrative qualities that made the original commissions effective.
“Superbly brought
to life.”
Selected editorial feedback from commissioned fiction illustration work.
BEHIND THE ARTWORK
A published look at the process
In 2024, The People’s Friend featured my illustration process for the award-winning story Fossils, including a behind-the-scenes look at how the artwork developed from concept to final published image.
Looking for commissioned illustration?
For book covers, magazine fiction, publishing projects or artwork licensing, tell me about the story, format and intended use.