Nancy Stahl


Nancy Stahl is an American illustrator.
Stahl was an inductee into the Illustrators Hall of Fame by the Society of Illustrators in 2012.

Early life and education

Stahl was born in Long Island, New York. The artist attended the University of Arizona and the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles.

Early work

Although the artist would be recognized as a pioneer of digital illustration, Stahl began her illustration career in 1971 working in gouache, and developing a bold "poster style" which the artist credits as being influenced by Ludwig Hohlwein, and more generally by the English railway and underground posters of Edward McKnight Kauffer
In the late 1980s, Stahl was invited by Charlex to come in after hours to learn how to create digital art on their mainframe computers. Digital image manipulation was in its infancy at the time and the artist has recalled that "you'd go back to this hazmat type of room--you know, those computer rooms where the guys would wear white and it was freezing cold--one huge room, full of tapes, and you'd load your tape".

Digital work

Stahl has designed postage stamps for the United States Postal Service and in addition to her stamp illustrations, the artist has been featured by print publications such as Time Magazine, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal and many others.
The artist has been an adviser for Adobe along with other select digital artists, test-driving the unreleased Adobe Photoshop versions. Stahl was featured in CA, Step-by-Step, Print, and Peachpit Press Illustrator Wow and Painter Wow books.

As an educator

Stahl has been an instructor in the Independent Study master's degree program at Hartford Art School, Syracuse University, and taught at the School of Visual Arts and the Fashion Institute of Technology.
Wacom used Stahl as a spokesperson for their professional pen tablet and recorded videos of her demonstrating the most advanced techniques of their recent product.

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