Quebec's illustration profession has flourished and its visual milieu has been enriched thanks to the creations, talent, daring and dedication of these outstanding illustrators. They are consummate professionals, completely devoted to a profession that has attained prominent status and success in Québec, Canada and even abroad. They are artists who chose to follow their inspirations and stay true to their techniques, rather than submit to fleeting trends.

Frédéric Back

He began back in 1952 with Radio-Canada as an illustrator, art director and model maker for musical, scientific and youth programming, and joined its animated film division in 1968. He went on to create nine short films devoted to promoting intelligent symbiosis between humanity and nature, among them: Illusion?; Tout-rien; Crac!; The Man who Planted Trees; and The Mighty River. A many time prizewinner and recipient of two Oscars (Academy Award), his films are internationally acclaimed and used widely in education.

Philippe Béha

Philippe Béha was born in 1950 in Casablanca. Prolific creator, he has illustrated more than 150 children's books in more than 30-year career. Known for his illustrations and graphics broke countless colors, it gives life to his illustrations slipping in some unusual elements. Happiness, joy and poetry guide the work of the illustrator who is considered a pioneer of illustration for youth in Quebec. Philippe Béha also writes stories every day for toddlers. Philippe is one of the founding members of Illustration Québec.

Antoine Dumas

Beginning as a designer in advertising, he helped found the Graphics Communications program of the École des arts visuels. By 1960, Dumas was giving periodic exhibitions in Québec, Montreal and Toronto; in 1975 he was invited as a guest artist in New York. Travelling exhibitions based on his solo shows were organized on two occasions: first across Québec in 1973, and then in Ontario in 1980. Dumas is mainly known as an artist and book illustrator and for his silkscreen prints, but he also designs murals and postage stamps for Canada Post. He is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.

Suzanne Duranceau

Recipient of numerous prizes for her editorial, advertising and children's book illustrations, Suzanne Duranceau is the creator of 16 stamps including, in 2004, a France-Canada co-production titled "1604 Pierre Dugua, sieur de Mons". She also recently completed the design for a gold coin celebrating the 130th anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada for the Royal Canadian Mint. Beginning with the international success of her "Trilogie de la Terre" (Earth Trilogy) in 1990 for the 20th anniversary of Smithsonian Magazine, she has oriented her work increasingly toward ecological subjects. For the last seven years she has taught Visual Language and Drawing (Langage Plastique et Dessin) at C.E.G.E.P. Ahuntsic and now teaches at the new UBISOFT Campus.

 Vittorio Fiorucci

Is a poster artist who exudes powerful style and colour, and who also works in sculpture comic strips. He has been known as a seminal figure in design and graphic arts in Québec since the 1960s, and has acquired international renown as can be testified by his listing in the Swiss Who's Who in Graphic Design publication. Among his most familiar characters is the Just For Laughs festival mascot.Vittorio is an art that packs a punch! He left us in the summer of 2008.

 Michèle Lemieux 

Michèle Lemieux came to illustration toward the end of the 1970's. For five years, she worked in Germany, where she published her first titles, and then returned to Montreal, where in 1989 she began to teach at UQAM's School of Design. Her illustrated books, which have been translated into twenty languages, have earned numerous international prizes, notably the Bologna Ragazzi Award in 1997, the primary international prize for children's literature. 

 Richard Parent

Richard Parent was born on July 2, 1958 in Montreal. He studied advertising graphics and several years later participated in the first steps of the Association of Illustrators of Quebec. Subsequently, he exiled himself to London for three years ( 1985 - 1988 ) where he collaborated on several publications and worked for several publishing houses. Following his return to Montreal, he worked closely with the McGill University Press, where he created more than forty cover pages. In 1990, B.A.T. magazine supported him by publishing an interview depicting him as one of the best 100 illustrators in the world.

He was tossed into the world like a raging bull into a china shop. Such was the cliché opening act of this artist, who was forced to make do with a remarkable schnoz, an excruciating timidity, a misfitting wardrobe, an overly sensitive heart and debilitating dyslexia. Thus bundled, Pol Turgeon made his first awkward steps in a seemingly hostile world. His reading and writing disability catalyzed an avid early devotion to drawing, which became for him the medium by which his china ego gained a much-needed affirmation. Though not noticeably gifted, Turgeon persisted. Creating images was the one thing that transported him beyond the cruelty of his environment. So enduring and pervasive was his enthrallment--in that it never failed to lift his spirits into a vault of bliss--that many years later his illustrations would be reproduced throughout the world. His work has been honoured with awards and has appeared in numerous prestigious illustration annuals. Today, besides obsessively drawing, he teaches illustration and live-art drawing at the University of Quebec at Montreal, exhibits his professional and personal work and gives talks and workshops internationally and is currently working on the set design for a multi-discipline performance piece. And despite all this, Pol Turgeon is convinced that he has only just begun...