Today's Inspiration

Bernie Fuchs' FAC Lessons, Part 5

leifpeng@gmail.com (Leif Peng) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:30:00 +0000

Recently TI list member Matt Dicke very kindly sent me a PDF of Bernie Fuch's chapter from the 1967 edition of the Famous Artists Course. How better to learn about Bernie Fuchs' process than to hear it described in his own words?

Those interested in reading the text should click on each image to see a larger version of the scan.

The Famous Artists School continues to this day! Please visit the school's website for details.

The school also hosts a page devoted to guiding faculty member, Bernie Fuchs on their site, which includes a biography of the artist and a gallery of his work.

Many thanks again to Matt Dicke for providing this week's scans.

* My Bernie Fuchs Flickr set.

*ALSO: Charlie Allen's latest CAWS is finally up. Visit Charlie Allen's Blog for some " home cookin' "

*AND: A new post at Storyboard Central showcases rare advertising marker comps by legendary '50s comic artist Art Saaf!

Bernie Fuchs' FAC Lessons, Part 4

leifpeng@gmail.com (Leif Peng) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:27:00 +0000

Bernie Fuchs' FAC Lessons, Part 3

leifpeng@gmail.com (Leif Peng) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:06:00 +0000

Bernie Fuchs' FAC Lessons, Part 2

leifpeng@gmail.com (Leif Peng) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:48:00 +0000

Bernie Fuchs and the Famous Artists Course

leifpeng@gmail.com (Leif Peng) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:56:00 +0000

In past posts we've looked at some of lessons from the original 1950's Famous Artists Course, but never at the material that was part of the school's 1960's "revamp" - when a second generation of renowned illustrators were called upon to update the look of the course material.

Recently TI list member Matt Dicke very kindly sent me a PDF of Bernie Fuch's chapter from that revamped Famous Artists Course. I thought it might make a good topic for this week's posts. How better to learn about how Bernie Fuchs made pictures that to have him describe the process in his own words?

Those interested in reading the text should click on each image to see a larger version of the scan.

The Famous Artists School continues to this day! Please visit the school's website for details.

The school also hosts a page devoted to guiding faculty member, Bernie Fuchs on their site, which includes a biography of the artist and a gallery of his work.

Many thanks again to Matt Dicke for providing this week's scans.

* My Bernie Fuchs Flickr set.

Anthony Saris: "Perfectionist Experimenter"

leifpeng@gmail.com (Leif Peng) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:33:00 +0000

Usually I present the work of an illustrator chronologically so that we can see his style mature over the course of his career. This week, just for fun, I reversed the order. On Day I we saw Anthony Saris' work from 1967... On Day 2 from 1963... yesterday we looked at his mid-to-late '50's style, and today, we see some of the earliest Saris work I could find. Below, Saris pieces from 1951 and '52, respectively.

Anthony Saris was born in Joliet, Illinios and moved to New York from Chicago at age 11. He studied illustration at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and graduated in 1947.

You are looking at the kind of work he did about 5 years into his professional career.

This makes his mid-'50s stylistic development seem all the more remarkable. Below, a Saris piece for Collier's from 1954.

Saris did occasionally do his finished drawings in pencil, and this looks like it may have been one of those occasions.

"Sometimes," Saris said in his 1959 American Artist interview," I use colored crayons instead of ink, or any other expedient that may come to mind. I am willing to try anything new."

Below, a 1955 Collier's piece that dramatically shows the artist's work at the point of transition: Saris does part of this piece in his then new straight-to-ink line style, is beginning to experiment with his frisket resist technique and employing a more traditional painting method from his earlier days.

Saris, the "perfectionist experimenter", was described as "technically ... a rapid worker."

But his illustration production was relatively slow. Saris said that he would work on an image for quite some time in his mind before beginning to draw. As well, he said he would pose himself in a mirror or study passers-by. "Snapshots are helpful, principally to show detail," he said, "as well as sketches, and needless to say I have a sizable file of study material such as all illustrators assemble."

"In the case of important figures for an illustration, I prepare a separate and carefully planned drawing, photo or example from which I can make my finished ink drawing without hesitation."

Less than 10 years into a successful freelance illustration career Anthony Saris began teaching fourth-year illustration courses at his old alma mater, Pratt. No doubt he taught his students what he himself had so rapidly learned from experience: "The changeover from study to production usually provides a severe jolt for the graduate," said Saris, "caused by the sudden and largely unforeseen reversal of direction or goal. In school the laurels are awarded for the accumulation of knowledge, but when one enters the field of industry the emphasis shifts instantly to the use of knowledge. Employers are seldom impressed by our erudition, but they are interested in what we can do with it for them."

"In school we are fired with idealistic zeal, while at the same time we sense that commercialism has a slightly sordid connotation. We are afraid that 'they' will try to make commercial hacks of us. We must be true to our art and keep it pure, but nevertheless we need money."

"After I first established myself as a free-lance illustrator I resolved to devote my weekends to landscape painting, and I followed that resolution for a while. The purpose was to improve my art - as well as to enjoy myself - but principally, I suspect, to salve my artistic conscience, for the term 'commercial' still annoyed me. Then I realized I was foolishly competing with myself. I began to see the only difference between 'fine' and 'commercial' art is in the mind of the artist himself; that he becomes a hack only if he allows others to so convert him."

"If he follows an uncompromising course in art ethics and production his output can be esthetically pure."

* My Anthony Saris Flickr set.

Anthony Saris: "... an open mind and a flexible viewpoint."

leifpeng@gmail.com (Leif Peng) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:43:00 +0000

In yesterday's post, Anthony Saris described how he would sometimes paint with liquid frisket to create complex white "line art", paint colour over the page and then peel away the frisket to reveal an "unmechanical, fortuitous result." Here is probably the most advanced example of that technique I could find... pretty spectacular, in my opinion! (Click the image to see a much larger version)

As a neophyte illustrator, Saris (who considered himself an artist foremost and loathed the term "commercial art") initially had a wide-ranging portfolio with samples done in may styles and mediums.

He found that his line drawings with colour garnered the most favourable reaction from the art directors he visited. He also sensed that ADs were looking for artists with distinctly individual styles. Saris quickly revamped his portfolio so that it contained only line drawings with one colour added. What a refreshingly pragmatic attitude!

Keeping in mind both the the practical consideration of fulfilling the wishes of his client and his personal desire as an artist to experiment and express himself, Saris would then look for ways to enhance the basic process of line with colour. here, for example, he incorporated an actual section of a police fingerprint document...

... as well as some actual sections of a state map, montaged onto the underlying hand drawn artwork.

The results reflect a thoughtful philosophy of creative process that Saris described thus: "In my work I try not to impose my own convictions or concepts upon the project, but prefer contrarily that the situation be permitted to show the way so that I may follow with an open mind and a flexible viewpoint."

"This is an important point in my philosophy - that the job, and not I, dictate the procedure."

What initially was undertaken out of pragmatism ( Saris saw ink line drawings as his only shot at landing assignments ) became in time a sincere love for a medium. Because Saris applied himself so passionately to developing his specialty, he was kept busy with ink drawings for a huge variety of clients for many years.

Saris cited the work of Ben Shahn, Paul Klee, George Grosz among those he most admired and studied. He said he regretted not discovering the work of Arthur Rackham sooner, but included him and Edwin Austin Abbey and inspirations.

Asked at the time of his America Artist interview (1959) why he thought he was enjoying such success, Saris said the key was the rise of photography in commercial picture-making. Literal realism in painted illustration simply could not compete because it was too closely related to what could be achieved with a photograph. Saris felt the key to his success was to create artwork that was as different from photography as possible "within reason."

"At present," said Saris, "the line-and-color method seems to meet these specifications best."

* My Anthony Saris Flickr set

Anthony Saris Explains His Process

leifpeng@gmail.com (Leif Peng) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:34:00 +0000

From the March 1959 issue of American Artist magazine

"I start each drawing as though it were to be a 'finish'. If it develops unsatisfactorily, I start another. Often I make several starts. I draw quickly and my style is such that this re-doing system is not much more time-consuming than the preliminary pencil sketch method would be."

"My illustrations are all based upon drawings in ink. Some are straight black and whites..."

"... but even those in color are essentially drawings..."

"... over which tints are applied."

"In making illustrations I seldom use a pencil for preliminary guidance, preferring to draw directly with the pen. The drawing is done purely in outline. When that seems satisfactory, I put in the important dramatic, solid black areas and the half-tone values."

"In a colored illustration the pigment is applied over the ink."

"Later, I insert the smaller, incidental blacks. Colored inks are my basic color source."

"Basically, my method is as simple as the preceeding paragraph states, but as each step permits unlimited variation, the procedure can become as elaborate as desired."

"I believe in experimentation, and whenever feasible, I test new methods for novel incidental effects. For example... in adding the color (colored inks) I may employ a brush or an ink roller like those used in block printing."

"It is used, of course, only to cover large, simple areas. The other shapes must be masked out. I use frisket paper for the large expanses and liquid frisket for details."

"Drawing ink, of course, is much thinner than printing ink and of different composition and does not lend itself to flat, even coloring, but as I am always alert for fortunate accidentals, this offers quite an advantage in my eyes."

"I make many experimental variations with frisket in solid masses and in line. Let us imagine the subject is a figure clothed in decorative costume. The elaborate line drawing may be made with frisket on plain white paper. Color as desired is then applied over the drawing, and when the frisket is removed and the white line design is modulated suitably, the result is striking and unusual. True, a similar effect might be achieved by drawing the outline design with white ink..."

"... but to me the unmechanical, fortuitous result of the first method is infinitely to be desired from an artistic point of view."

* My Anthony Saris Flickr set.

* Charlie Allen's latest CAWS - a dozen amazing b/w ink-line drawings from the '50s and '60s - not to be missed!

Anthony Saris and the Beautiful Contradiction

leifpeng@gmail.com (Leif Peng) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:27:00 +0000

When I was in art college, some 20-odd years ago, my Conceptual Art instructor, Frank Neufeld loved to say to us, "Everything I tell you is the truth... and everything I tell you is a lie." At the time I didn't really understand what he meant and it frustrated the hell out of me, especially because he always said it with a mischievous smirk and a glint in his eye. But as time goes by and I learn more and more I think perhaps I have come to grasp at least a part of that cryptic remark Frank was so fond of.

Which brings us to Anthony Saris.

Last week we looked at Fletcher Martin and learned that he had some deeply held beliefs about how one should make pictures. Martin hardly fit the mold of "illustrator", but during his career he did a lot of commercial art for both editorial and advertising clients. Similarly Anthony Saris (who was a younger man but worked during the same mid-century period) drew mostly for commercial clients, but abhorred the term "commercial artist". Saris believed there was no distinction between what he called "applied art" and gallery painting. Like Martin, he believed the artist should have unrestricted creative freedom to devise as original and imaginative a solution to his assignment as possible.

Fletcher Martin didn't really plan his pictures in advance - he let them evolve on the canvas. "When I approach the painting," Martin explained, "I never begin with a fixed idea of how the painting will look. I find the painting while doing it."

Similarly, Anthony Saris would begin a picture without what he described as "the common practice of making small pencil layouts to try out the composition. With a fresh paper before me," he said, "I begin drawing, in ink, that which I have decided is to be the principle feature of the design."

Saris would then add surrounding elements until he was satisfied with the results. He would often discard a picture part way through if it began to show signs of an unsatisfactory conclusion. "In my mental background," said Saris, "I retain an image of the shape I must fill, and the illustration gradually approximates it, though the size of the drawing develops as it will, depending on whether I decide the design is complete. The finished drawing may turn out to be from two to four times the size of the reproduction-to-be."

Isn't it remarkable that two artist with such similar philosophies would produce such dramatically different results. That's because in one area these two had opposing points of view: Martin saw no merit in using photo reference for his work. "If you can draw it on the spot you can draw it later," was how he put it. "The tyranny of the model, " said Fletcher Martin, "is a terrible thing."

Anthony Saris, meanwhile, was adamant about the value of his photo reference: "I do not believe in drawing figures from memory," he said, "for thus I would miss those many subtleties and unique arrangements that often present themselves in actuality but which can never be imagined."

This, my friends, is the beautiful contradiction of art. Its why everything I tell you is the truth...

... and everything I tell you is a lie.

* My Anthony Saris Flickr set.

Fletcher Martin: "what your eye gives you and what your heart responds to is all-important."

leifpeng@gmail.com (Leif Peng) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:57:00 +0000

Fletcher Martin was interviewed in the Winter, 1962 issue of Famous Artists Magazine. Interviewer Mary Anne Guitar began, "Although you are a painter of great versatility you are best known for your vigorous sports scenes. Do you think these paintings represent your work at its best?"

Martin replied, "There was a period when I did a lot of fight things - bullfights and prize fights. At this time I was getting a lot of attention as a new artist... Life described me as an ex-sailor, ex-fighter, who had turned painter. This kind of myth fit my appearance. I don't mean to say it was totally inaccurate. I am very much interested in sports but I like to paint other things as well."

Explaining further, Martin continued, "You can make a hell of a painting about anything, but it is absolutely essential that it interests you. The more interested you are the better, provided your interest is esthetic and not just sentimental. When sentimentality permeates the picture it fails."

"[This] may sound like a contradiction but it isn't really... instead of sentimental involvement the painter should have an empathetic involvement."

Guitar pointed out that Martin had made a remarkably tender and very real painting of mother-and-child for the cover of that issue of Famous Artists Magazine, to which the artist replied, "To have an empathy doesn't mean that you must literally step into that person's shoes. You must understand, deeply and sympathetically, how the other person feels."

"I don't have to be a matador to paint bullfights. But I understand what the show is, what the conflict is, what the drama should be. To make an action picture you should feel the action. And when you understand fully you can be discriminating. The tourist who has never seen a bullfight before may respond only to the blood."

"The good things in a bullfight are the subtle relationships between the beast and the man. This is why the sport is exciting."

Fletcher Martin's two favourite subjects - sports and women - raised the question of how he would explain the curious contradiction - the tough and the tender - that seem to be central to his psyche. Martin replied, "The female figure just interests me. Whether it was erotic or not in the beginning I don't know."

Asked about his process, Martin explained, "I find the painting while doing it. The basic conception is usually a felt thing. Then it must be established."

"I sometimes make drawings, many drawings of the subject I'm going to do, in order to find the attitudes which will work. I have an idea about the order of the picture, but in the course of making it many changes occur."

"One should always be willing to make the changes. However proud one is of any painting, it should be expendable. One should work on the whole picture - and every day. One shouldn't get too involved with any particular detail or live in the occurrence depicted. The picture itself is an object."

"A person should draw all the time, like he eats and sleeps. Every day I draw, and it doesn't have to be a drawing for something. One's power of observation should be made as acute as possible so that anything you understand you can get down without having the subject right in front of you. The tyranny of the model is a terrible thing. It is a tremendously hampering thing. When you understand the human figure you can draw the figure. You don't need a model."

"I discovered that what your eye gives you and what your heart responds to is all-important. When I go through the material I have gathered on a trip and pick up any sketch at random, I can feel the weather, smell the smells, hear the sounds that were there because I made it, no matter how long ago. It is real to me because I lived there a little while, maybe a minute, maybe an hour, but intensely."

"The good pictures, the ones you like, are always an experience."

* My Fletcher Martin Flickr set.

* For those who missed my previous posts on Fletcher Martin's career, you can read them at these links:

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part5

* Fletcher Martin's work is represented by The Fletcher Gallery

Fletcher Martin: "Good pictures are always an experience"

leifpeng@gmail.com (Leif Peng) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:43:00 +0000

In the broad scheme of things, its unlikely that one would categorize Fletcher Martin as an illustrator. He was truly a fine arts painter who occasionally took on illustration assignments. Here is one of the earliest I've ever seen - found online - from 1942.

Martin firmly believed in painting what he knew, what he had experienced, and considering his youth and early adulthood, wandering hobo-like through Depression era America, the Shell ad seems more than appropriate subject matter for him.

Martin had hopped freight trains, worked as a day labourer picking fruit, done highway construction jobs and been a lumberjack. He had joined the Navy and sailed the oceans of the world... he was an ex-prize fighter. So years later when he said in an interview, "In painting a prize fight, for example, you need to know what it feels like to fight. Before you can draw and order a thing you need to get the feel of it. Good pictures come out of one's experience, out of one's life."

Asked how he consolidated his inclination for painting what he chose to paint with the needs of a commercial client, he replied, "There was never any problem for me because there was never any art direction involved. I was not restricted. I brought in the drawings and they chose those they wanted me to develop into paintings."

Hard for most illustrators to imagine - having such complete freedom!

Fletcher Martin was hardly as prolific an advertising illustrator as many others we've looked at here, but the trade-off of complete creative freedom was clearly too essential for him to compromise. Martin said, "I could have been much more solvent doing something else. Being an artist has been a difficult thing, but I paint because it has been my major interest ever since I can remember."

"I never even thought of being anything else but an artist. As a kid I didn't know exactly what I wanted to be but there was an awareness that I was longing for something. Art satisfied that longing."

Art directors clearly appreciated Fletcher Martin's commitment to his personal vision. His work was included in several volumes of the New York Art Directors Club Annuals during the '40s and '50s... and advertising assignments from major national corporations were offered time and again.

Even so, to those who would follow in his footsteps Martin proffered this qualifier: "The freedom to do what you want to do doesn't automatically produce a good thing. I don't suffer, because I enjoy the whole trial and tribulation of the problem."

"But a commission has a much more positive and definable goal than a painting that you're just doing to please yourself. Freedom is desirable..."

" ... but it can be an adversary too."

* My Fletcher Martin Flickr set.

* For those who missed yesterday's comments, Joyce K. Schiller, Curator at the Norman Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies wrote to tell us that the study drawing for the December 27, 1943 cover of Life magazine by Fletcher Martin was a recent gift to the Norman Rockwell Museum collections and is currently hanging in a gallery called "Curator's Choice: Selections from the Norman Rockwell Museum Collections."

What a great opportunity for those within striking distance of the NRM! Thanks for the heads-up, Joyce.

*Also: Be sure to drop by Charlie Allen's Blog for the latest CAWS - wherein Charlie concludes his adventures in "duck stamping".

*And finally: A new post at Storyboard Central showcasing more amazing artwork by Italian illustrator, Roberto Molino.

Fletcher Martin: The Art of War

leifpeng@gmail.com (Leif Peng) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:44:00 +0000

In June 2007 I spent a week showcasing the work and career of Fletcher Martin. Among the biographical details we covered was a brief passage about Martin's experience as an artist-correspondent on assignment for Life magazine during W.W. II. I mentioned in passing that his December 1943 cover and 13-page article for Life brought him national recognition. Earlier this year I acquired that issue of Life. On this Remembrance Day (Veteran's Day in the U.S.) I'm pleased to present to you all of the Fletcher Martin material from that issue.

* If You never saw my previous posts on this remarkable artist, you can read them at these links:

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part5

* Fletcher Martin's work is represented by The Fletcher Gallery

* My Fletcher Martin Flickr set

Louis S Glanzman: The Amazing Man

leifpeng@gmail.com (Leif Peng) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:32:00 +0000

Years ago when I first began exploring the file folders of old magazine clippings that would one day become the original source material for Today's Inspiration, I came across the illustration below and immediately fell in love with it.

I loved the beautiful line drawing, so confident yet delicate; the rich, warmth of the painted colour scheme... but most of all, as a life-long fan of comic books, I loved the subject matter.

The artist had taken the time to make up a bunch of imaginary old titles and characters and mocked in page details and cover indicias. Something told me this artist shared my fondness for comic books. There was a lot of love in this illustration.

But who was this mystery artist from the mid-20th century? Back then I wouldn't have known a Pitz from a Parker...

... so what looked like the initials "C S K" signed along the bottom of the illustration meant absolutely nothing to me.

I lingered for a while over the illustration, scanned it and sent it out to the few early members of the TI mailing list ( whom I knew would appreciate it as well) and filed it back away where I had found it.

Fast forward several years. I had just acquired a nice stack of 1950s Collier's magazines and begun flipping through them... when the illustration below stopped me in my tracks.

Something about the style of this illustration reminded me of that earlier beloved piece by "C S K"... except this time the three initial signature was clearly "L S G"... and further, the accompanying article identified the artist as "Louis S Glanzman".

I knew I had finally found the mystery illustrator!

As I learned more about Lou Glanzman I came to understand why he had so affectionately rendered all those comic books in that first illustration: at age 16 Lou began his professional art career as a comic book artist. He created a back up feature called "The Shark" in Centaur Publication's Amazing Man Comics. Lou earned $7.50 per page to write, draw, ink and colour "The Shark." A few months after he began working for Centaur, the main feature's creator left and Lou took over "Amazing Man". In Alter Ego magazine #46, interviewer Jim Amash asked Lou if the promotion came with a raise. "No," Lou told him, "But I got more pages to do. I think that's why I got the work. I was a kid and could draw. I was just happy for the work. All I thought about was getting more pages to draw."

For that 16 year old kid it would take almost another lifetime - but in 1953, at age 31, Louis S Glanzman was accepted into the Society of Illustrators. That same year he illustrated his first cover for Collier's magazine. In '54 he illustrated two more.

Not bad for a kid who grew up in rural Virginia and never really attended art school. Lou Glanzman, the real Amazing Man, had finally arrived.

Collier's became a steady client for Lou. And at the SoI, he had the distinction of socializing with some of the giants of the illustration business. He often shared a table with William A. Smith, Norman Rockwell and Harold Von Schmidt.

"In fact," Fran Glanzman told me during our phone conversation, "Lou travelled to the Far East with Von Schmidt."

For the next several years Lou contributed artwork to Collier's on an almost weekly basis.

I ask Lou what kind of guy (Collier's AD) William O. Chessman was...

Lou replied, "He was a great guy - a great client."

Fran added, " Collier's was a weekly, and everybody looked at it. For Lou to be a regular contributor was a very big deal."

Unfortunately Collier's ceased publication at the end of 1956. This double page spread from the January 4, 1957 issue must be the last piece Louis Glanzman ever did for the magazine.

Just as the Collier's illustration at the top of this post featuring comic books looked back on Lou Glanzman's past, this final western-themed Collier's illustration seems to have portended the artist's future: he would go on to become one of America's most prolific - and highest paid - illustrators of Western themed paperback covers.

For an article in Illustration magazine # 19. Lou told author Gary Lovisi that as a boy he loved to draw. "I never did get to go to an art school, but I never stopped drawing - and then I learned to paint."

Today, at age 87, Louis S. Glanzman - the Amazing Man - still draws and paints. Every day.

* My Louis Glanzman Flickr set.

* Lou Glanzman's website

Louis Glanzman: "I got my art training in comics"

leifpeng@gmail.com (Leif Peng) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:54:00 +0000

Yesterday I called Lou and Fran Glanzman to ask about Lou's career during the 1950s. Lou, who is 87 and still paints every day (!) is having a little trouble with his hearing so Fran very graciously agreed to be the go-between. We talked for nearly an hour, with Lou chiming in now and then to provide specifics Fran was unsure of.

I learned that Lou Glanzman had a rep named John Locke, who also represented John Pike and Ronald Searle, and that it was Locke who got Lou his first assignment for Collier's.

The earliest examples of Lou Glanzman's Collier's illustrations I managed to find are the spot illustration above and the last piece from yesterday's post - also a spot. Those two came from February and March of 1952.

In April '52 Lou did the magnificent montaged double page spread below, entitled "Honkytonk - U.S.A."

I asked Fran if she or Lou remembered this piece but unfortunately neither of them did. I find it incredibly powerful and fascinating. We talked briefly about Al Parker and I asked if he had been an influence on Lou, because of the graphic quality of this piece, and because of the montage effect, but Lou said no. The montage effect Lou often employed during the '50s was of his own devising. Parker, he relayed to Fran who passed the comment on to me, was more of a romance artist while Lou was an adventure illustrator.

Back in 2005 my friend Jim Amash conducted an interview with Lou Glanzman for issue #46 of Alter Ego magazine. They talked at length about Lou's early professional work in comic books, before his W.W. II service in the Army Air Force. Jim asked Lou why he didn't return to comics after the war and Lou told him, "Because I wanted to be an "artiste."

Lou said, "When the war was over, I got married and had responsibilities. I ran into the same kind of trouble I had when I started. I went to publishers and they told me to "go back to school."

"I started painting and my first big break was with True Magazine. I was a jazz buff and I had the good fortune to do work with an original manuscript... it was a manuscript Louis Armstrong wrote about New Orleans. I painted a picture for it in my first house. It was an enormous painting, and I knew I had hit the big time."

Not bad for a self-taught artist who told Jim Amash, "I got my art training in comics. I did go to the School of Industrial Arts in New York..."

"... but most of the time I played hooky at the burlesque shows on 42nd Street."

* Alter Ego #46 with a Lou Glanzman interview by Jim Amash is still available from the publisher.

* My Louis S. Glanzman Flickr set.

Louis Glanzman: "The real painting artist"

leifpeng@gmail.com (Leif Peng) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:13:00 +0000

There are a lot of graphic arts professionals on the Today's Inspiration daily mailing list including several, like Harry Borgman and Charlie Allen, who were there on the front lines during the mid-century period we all adore. But the mid-century illustrator who has been a TI list member the longest is the man his brother Sam once described in an interview as "the real painting artist", Louis S. Glanzman.

Lou and his wife Fran have been following Today's Inspiration every day since long before it was a blog. At the time, I was sending one scan out each day to about a hundred people (now its nearly a thousand!)

On one particular occasion I had collected the images you see here today in preparation for a week of emails to my subscribers. I decided to do a little detective work on the artist and discovered Lou's website!

Lou already has a comprehensive biography available on his site, so I won't spend too much time on that here.

What I've done for this week is collect about a dozen pieces Lou did for Collier's magazine between 1952 and 1957 (when the magazine folded). I'm hoping to ask Lou some specific questions about those assignments over the course of this week and present the images along with his answers.

Unfortunately replies to my emails to Fran and Lou have been sporadic so I can't promise you we'll hear back from them in time... but "the show will go on" either way.

Louis Glanzman did some inspired work for Collier's AD, Bill Chessman, during the mid-1950s. Watching his style evolve and mature during this clearly busy time will be interesting, to say the least.

* Louis Glanzman's website

* My Louis Glanzman Flickr set.

Happy Hallowe'en with 'Scary' Harry Borgman!

leifpeng@gmail.com (Leif Peng) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:23:00 +0000

Happy Hallowe'en, Boils and Ghouls! Here's a tricky treat for everyone who loves to draw monsters ( or just loves drawings of monsters): a great little "How To..." booklet by 'Scary' Harry Borgman, long time TI list member and mid-century illustrator extraordinaire.

Harry created this cornucopia of cartoon creeps back in the early 1970s, around the same time he was drawing scary illustrations of Dracula in a more realistic style for a book entitled "Great Tales of Horror and Suspense".

This little book was Harry's first "How To..." book and paved the way for other larger art instruction books he did for Watson Guptill Publications.

Harry had already taught art "live and in person" at the Society of Arts and Crafts in Detroit just a few years earlier - and that lead to an opportunity to contribute some 'sick' scribblings to Sick magazine.

These delightfully dreadful drawings show how Harry's moniker at Sick magazine, "The Professor" suited him perfectly!

Harry Borgman recently celebrated the 1st Anniversary of his blog, Harry Borgman Art Blog. There you'll find so much interesting information, so many astonishing anecdotes and such a wealth of amazing artwork that you'll want to cancel your plans for the day and stay glued to the computer. Harry has had so many interesting adventures in the illustration biz and at age 81, he's still going strong! Happy Hallowe'en - and Happy 1st Anniversary, Harry Borgman Art Blog - here's to many more!

* My Harry Borgman Flickr set.

Walter Wyles: "...something out of the ordinary"

leifpeng@gmail.com (Leif Peng) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:40:00 +0000

Guest author: Bryn Havord

George (Tiny) Watts the art director of Woman was keen to encourage Wally to push the boundaries and work in different styles for different assignments. This Elizabethan woman with her hands held in prayer was part of an eight or ten part period serial done for Woman around 1961.

Wally did these science fiction and fantasy covers in the mid 1970s.

He did about four in total and enjoyed doing them.

Throughout his career, clients could usually rely on Wally to do something out of the ordinary...

... sometimes we got more than we expected!

During his career he had been privileged to paint HM Queen Elizabeth II and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, and other prominent members of the Royal Family...

... and he started to accept a growing number of portrait commissions.

He was also working as an easel painter producing landscapes in oil and watercolour.

However, a series of heart attacks resulted in an enforced period of convalescence and he drastically reduced his work commitments.

In 2004, his wife Margaret wrote a book using some of her late mother’s letters, featuring her early life as a young girl in a remote village in west Wales. Wyles was commissioned to produce the illustration for the cover. When it was published the Welsh Book Council made it their Book of the Month. (Love from Blodwen. By Margaret Wyles. Seren. ISBN 1-85411-359-3).

Wyles who is now eighty-four, continues to paint every day, and still accepts the occasional portrait commission.

* Many thanks to guest author Bryn Havord for this week's excellent presentation on Walter Wyles! In the late 50s and early 60s Bryn was assistant art director of Woman magazine. From 1963 to 1965 he was associate editor and art director of Woman's Mirror; both of which were published in the UK. During that time he commissioned work from all the leading British Illustrators including Walter Wyles, Eric Ernshaw, Michael Johnson and Gerry Fancett. Walter Wyles remains his oldest and closest friend.

* Personal photographs © Peter Mullett.

* My Walter Wyles Flickr set.

Walter Wyles: Across the Pond

leifpeng@gmail.com (Leif Peng) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:30:00 +0000

Guest author: Bryn Havord

By the mid-’60s Bernie Fuchs, Herb Tauss and Lynn Buckham had replaced the earlier American stars, with Bernie Fuchs rapidly becoming the man to watch and emulate, but there was still plenty of work for the best of the English illustrators. At this time there were two English illustrators, Ken Dallison and Wilson McLean living and working in New York City, but Walter Wyles became the first English illustrator living and working in England to be commissioned to produce a painting for an American magazine when Bill Cadge, the art director of Redbook, asked him to illustrate a story.

Unfortunately that Redbook illustration was not to be found at this time, but Leif found a series of Wally's illustrations from the same period done for Reader's Digest Condensed Books.

Wyles had no direct dealings with Readers' Digest in the USA, it was all done through their London office: they contacted him. He can't remember what the fees were, certainly no way near as much as the American fees. He thinks it was around £150.00 per spread or illustration.

At that time there were US$2.40 to £1.00 Sterling. He was paid $1,250.00 for the Redbook illustration which was one page and not a spread. He retained the copyright and only sold them first rights.

We can't remember how work was sent back and forth across the pond before FedEx. Wally relied upon his agent who is long since dead, so we can't ask him.

Wally supplied the London office with roughs and was given about a month to complete the work once the roughs had been approved. He remembers one other job for American RD, although he did a fair number for the UK Readers' Digest.

In 1964, Wyles felt the need to return to his native Kent and he bought a neo-Georgian house at Birchington, near the north Kentish coast. However, in 1967 after furnishing the house with Georgian furniture and completing all the re-decoration, his wife Maggie found a derelict Jacobean farmhouse in a secluded setting four miles from Canterbury, which they decided to renovate and make their future and permanent home.

By the end of the ’60s the downturn in the American women’s magazine illustration market started to be reflected in England, as the interest in romantic fiction in women’s magazines declined. Wyles had built up a substantial following in the book jacket market,

... and with Scandinavian women’s magazines, and he had plenty of work well into the 1970s.

His sale of second rights material also continued to hold up well.

* In the late 50s and early 60s guest author Bryn Havord was assistant art director of Woman magazine. From 1963 to 1965 he was associate editor and art director of Woman's Mirror; both of which were published in the UK. During that time he commissioned work from all the leading British Illustrators including Walter Wyles, Eric Ernshaw, Michael Johnson and Gerry Fancett. Walter Wyles remains his oldest and closest friend.

* My Walter Wyles Flickr set.

*ALSO* Be sure to visit Storyboard Central and Drawn! today for exciting news and some great artwork by TI list member Harry Borgman

Walter Wyles: "... at the top of his profession"

leifpeng@gmail.com (Leif Peng) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:28:00 +0000

Guest author: Bryn Havord

Walter Wyles met his future wife Margaret who was a student at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. After a brief courtship, they married in 1954 when Margaret became a full-time housewife. They started married life in an apartment in London’s west end, and after the birth of their sons Nicholas and Glyn, they moved out to south west London.

By the late ’50s Wyles’ career had taken off and he had become one of the leading illustrators working in England. The obligatory fast cars and a twelve-metre yacht followed, and they moved to a larger apartment near Wimbledon Common.

Women’s magazine illustration was at its height at this time, and most of the magazines were buying a lot of second rights material from the American greats such as Joe Bowler, Coby Whitmore and Joe de Mers. Their work had a considerable influence on the English editors, art editors and the illustrators themselves.

Leif asked me what motivated Wally to depart from his more typical realism for this 1960 series for Woman shown below...

George (Tiny) Watts the art director of Woman was keen to encourage Wally to push the boundaries and work in different styles for different assignments.

It was very well received, not only by Woman, but in the London magazine world generally, and by Mentor shirts (an American company) who commissioned him to produce a series of illustrations for an extensive advertising campaign.

By the mid-’60s Bernie Fuchs, Herb Tauss and Lynn Buckham had replaced the earlier American stars, with Bernie Fuchs rapidly becoming the man to watch and emulate, but there was still plenty of work for the best of the English illustrators, and Wyles remained at the top of his profession.

From 1963 to '65 I was associate editor and art director of Woman's Mirror magazine. Nancy Edgerton was a favourite model of ours for artists' reference: she was too short for the cat-walk but had superb bone structure. I hired her for the day to pose for Wally so he could paint her from life for a short romantic story entitled "One Friday".

Sometime later Ruari McLean, a highly respected design consultant, included a reproduction of the opening spread in his book Magazine Design which was published by the Oxford University Press in 1969. I was also pleased that he considered Woman's Mirror the only weekly woman's magazine worthy of inclusion in the book.

During the Woman's Mirror years Wally did a lot of unusual and exciting work for me. For one period serial he decided he'd like the whole staff of Woman's Mirror to model for his illustrations: my secretary Jean Hanlon hired the photographic studio, hired all the period costumes, and ordered several crates of beer and cases of wine. My editor, Joy Scully who was well upholstered, and a very good sport, modelled as a whorehouse keeper, and I was a Highwayman: another piece of good type-casting. It was a very enjoyable day, and the subsequent illustrations were stunning and very lively!

Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, we no longer have any examples. Wally lost a lot during a move to a summer house in south-west France. I lost all mine when a sailing barge that I lived on got run down by a German timber ship in the English Channel one night in 1971.

We could probably get some examples from the newspaper and periodical library at Colingdale in London, but life has moved on a bit since then, and we're both too old and doddery to want to make the journey now!

* In the late 50s and early 60s guest author Bryn Havord was assistant art director of Woman magazine. From 1963 to 1965 he was associate editor and art director of Woman's Mirror; both of which were published in the UK. During that time he commissioned work from all the leading British Illustrators including Walter Wyles, Eric Ernshaw, Michael Johnson and Gerry Fancett. Walter Wyles remains his oldest and closest friend.

* My Walter Wyles Flickr set.

Walter Wyles: "he decided that he wanted to be a magazine illustrator"

leifpeng@gmail.com (Leif Peng) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:24:00 +0000

Guest author: Bryn Havord

Walter Wyles was born in 1925 at Canterbury, in the county of Kent in south-east England. His father, Walter Henry, came from a military family and was a regular soldier in the British Army.

His mother Francesca Calvente came from near Malaga in southern Spain.

At the age of eleven he attended the Sidney Cooper Art School in Canterbury on a part-time basis, after a special recommendation from a teacher at his primary school. In 1939, at the age of fourteen he received a full-time scholarship to the art school...

... but four months later, at the outbreak of World War II, he left to go to work.

He had suffered from poliomyelitis as a child leaving him lame which resulted in him being unfit for military service. He started work as a book-binder and from 1940 to 1942, he worked as a junior draughtsman for two aircraft manufacturing companies helping the war effort. He then went to work for a display company in London’s west end. He became a part-time Air Raid Warden, spending many night-hours during the Blitz on the roof of his employer’s building, watching for fires started by incendiary bombs dropped by Hitler’s Luftwaffe.

He also attended an art school off Fleet Street in his spare time.

There followed a period working for War Artists in London’s Cambridge Circus and Cavendish Studios producing large paintings of air, sea and land battles.

After the war he went freelance on a full-time basis doing a lot of work as a fashion artist for Tailor & Cutter magazine, Man & His Clothes and The Draper’s Record.

In the early ’50s he decided that he wanted to be a magazine illustrator and worked at producing sample illustrations to show to prospective clients.

Woman was the world’s best-selling weekly magazine for women, selling an impressive three and a half million copies every week, and its editor Mary Grieve and art editor George (Tiny) Watts gave Wyles considerable encouragement, giving him his first commission, and later becoming one of his biggest clients.

* Above, a page from Francis Marshall's 1959 book, Magazine Illustration, featuring Walter Wyles. Continued tomorrow.

* In the late 50s and early 60s guest author Bryn Havord was assistant art director of Woman magazine. From 1963 to 1965 he was associate editor and art director of Woman's Mirror; both of which were published in the UK. During that time he commissioned work from all the leading British Illustrators including Walter Wyles, Eric Ernshaw, Michael Johnson and Gerry Fancett. Walter Wyles remains his oldest and closest friend.

* My Walter Wyles Flickr set.

* Meanwhile, things are just ducky at Charlie Allen's Blog. (Check out the latest CAWS to see what I mean)

Walter Wyles: "...my oldest and closest friend."

leifpeng@gmail.com (Leif Peng) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:53:00 +0000

Long-time readers will recall a week in March 2007 when guest author David Roach shared a cache of old magazine illustrations by British artists. One of those artists was Walter Wyles.

After that week, I received an email from a gentleman named Bryn Havord. He wrote, "I started work in London's Fleet Street in 1952 working on two comics entitled Eagle and Girl. They were published by Hulton Press who also published Housewife and Picture Post. We all had a voracious appetite for American magazines and were greatly influenced by them, especially the illustrators."

Bryn went on to assistant art direct Woman magazine in the late '50s and early '60s. From 1963 to '65 he was associate editor and art director of Woman's Mirror. "During that time I commissioned work from leading British illustrators including Walter Wyles," wrote Bryn. "He remains my oldest and closest friend."

Bryn and I made tentative plans for him to guest author a week on Walter for the blog. And now, a couple of years later, that project has finally come to fruition.

Last time Bryn visited with Walter and his wife Maggie, he collected an unprecedented bounty of gorgeous artwork for us - much of it shot from the originals - and a comprehensive biography of the artist's life and career.

Beginning tomorrow, Bryn Havord on his oldest and closest friend, Walter Wyles.

* my British Illustrators Flickr set

Praise for the Little Things: Naiad & Walter Einsel

leifpeng@gmail.com (Leif Peng) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:50:00 +0000

Unless you've been reading this blog since its early days you probably don't know about the husband and wife illustrator team of Naiad and Walter Einsel.

When I first wrote about the Einsels I didn't know just how many illustrators were married to illustrators, or how often those couples worked together... but still, with perhaps the exception of the Provensens, no other artist couple I've come across had so seamless a working relationship as Naiad and Walter.

About their working method, which Naiad called "leapfrogging" she wrote, "This was especially useful when one or both of us was under pressure of a heavy work load. First we'd sit down and verbally consult, brainstorming ideas. Then I'd draw a little sketch and Walter would add to that and we'd go on and on in this way, refining all the time."

The Einsels would sign the finished piece according to who received the assignment.

Occasionally, when I'm flipping through my old magazine collection, I'll come across a little spot here or there and know immediately that it is the work of the Einsels. This is always a happy moment for me... their meticulous, distinctive style is so charming that even the little things are a delight to behold.

Here are two projects by Naiad which were recognized for inclusion in the 1957 New York Art Director's Annual.

I wish we had them as colour reproductions, but for now these will have to do.

I haven't corresponded with Naiad since I interviewed her in early 2006, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover there is now a Naiad & Walter Einsel website! When we were corresponding Naiad was busy putting together a book that collected the many hand-made valentines the couple created for each other over the course of their long and happy marriage. I'm thrilled to see that the book is now available.

For those who never read the original series of posts I wrote about the Einsels, here are the links. You won't regret taking the time to view their beautiful artwork - and the story of their lives together is about as nice a love story as you could ever hope to find:

A Calling Card for All the World To See
"I liked his artwork because it looked like mine."
"Leapfrogging"
More Feast than Famine
Crazy in Love

* My Naiad & Walter Einsel Flickr set

Praise for the Little Things: Paperback Book Cover Art

leifpeng@gmail.com (Leif Peng) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:05:00 +0000

I don't make much of an effort to collect paperback book covers... but occasionally I stumble upon a few in a used book store and - if they are cheap enough - I pick them up. Last summer, while coming home from a fishing trip at a friend's cottage, I found a tiny stash that looked interesting and was priced right: 25 cents each.

One reason I've largely ignored paperbacks is that they often have no illustrator credits. This frustrates the heck out of me. The cover above is gorgeous - but its could have been done by any one of dozens of talented illustrators of the mid-20th century. My OCD inclinations kick into high gear when I'm confronted by artwork I can't catalogue! Grr!

Another frustration is the lousy reproduction quality one often finds on old paperbacks. The images above and below seem slightly out of focus, don't they? That annoys me to no end. They would be a lot more rewarding to study if they were sharper looking.

The one below is signed "Barye", whom I've been discovering was Phillip Baryé, an illustrator of a million-billion paperback covers, almost every one of which featured at least one fetching gal in a state of semi-undress. If Barye's covers were taken as a snapshot view of history, one would have to conclude that manufacturers of women's clothing in the 50's had not yet perfected any type of button, zipper or clasp.

Here's another gem I found for a quarter. I think that tiny signature near the sprawling lady's bare foot says "McGinnis", meaning this would be by Robert McGinnis, who also did tons of paperback covers (often featuring ladies, sprawling or otherwise).

What's interesting is I found a similarly sprawling lady - definitely by McGinnis - on Flickr... and although that piece is from 2 years earlier, its painted in a much more sophisticated manner. Hhmmm.

And finally, the last of my fishing trip finds: a beautiful paperback cover by Sandy Kossin. This one's from 1960, but don't let the fairly traditional, literal style fool you. Sandy was not the sort of artist who got stuck in a rut when it came to style.

And that gives me the chance to re-present some of his other paperback covers we've looked at before...

Believe it or not, the cover below is also by Sandy Kossin - and from just one year later than the one above. If that isn't a little remarkable to you then I don't know what is!

When I asked Sandy about that cover he said, "I am constantly amazed at the new attention to my paperback covers, mostly emanating from your blog. THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST was done twenty five years ago or more for Bantam, of course, and the art director was Len Leonni, one of the few people with artistic taste and power. He agreed with my concept of using a technique borrowed from the Masters..."Just give me a great piece of art."

"I don't remember doing a color sketch of the piece. Probably not. I just find I can enjoy doing a spin-off like this, since I learn from concentrating on the artist and extracting enough information that allows me to do it my way. This was obviously Christ and Judas painted in gouache with background colors mixed with Elmers Glue or acrylic matte liquid. Yes, the editors and Leone loved it. (I hope your reproduction isn't as dark and dingy as shown here)"

One day, out of the blue, Sandy sent me the scan below - again, in a variation of style - and when I pressed him to tell me more about his influences he wrote back, "I do give a lot of credit for any drama and design I use to David Stone Martin and Shahn. Ben Shahn, who I never met, but was alive while I was in art school, opened my eyes to not only shape-making, but the use of 'layers' of color over underpainting, and the judiscious use of color."

"DSM was also alive back then, and was a great influence on my line, which emulated Shahn's line which had that same stop-and-go quality which was useful in keeping a drawing from being fast and slick. No, never met the man, but again, his use of line and design made him the icon he became. In fact, his clients would not let him "grow" and change his style, which eventually led to his dropping out of the business."

"Growing" and having the freedom to change one's style was obviously always an important facet of how Sandy Kossin went about making pictures. Its the key to why his paperback covers never became derivative or tediously formulaic. At the end of one message Sandy wrote, "Most other paperback houses knew what I did, so I was given a lot of leeway in my concepts. And I was lucky enough to be assigned their number one books."

"Any more questions?"

* Sandy Kossin wrote a long and lavishly illustrated article about his career in Illustration magazine #25

* My Sandy Kossin Flickr set.

* My Paperback Covers Flickr set.

Lowell Hess: In Praise of the Little Things

leifpeng@gmail.com (Leif Peng) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:33:00 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I showed you a series of covers from 1950's issues of Boys' Life by Lowell Hess. I talked a little about how Lowell, as a boy growing up in Oklahoma, had always wanted to work for Collier's magazine, and how he eventually did 3 covers and many interior illustrations for that magazine. Lowell had a great relationship with Collier's AD, Bill Chessman, who called Lowell his "Number One Fireman" because he always seemed to come up with an interesting and entertaining illustration idea for those stories Chessman was struggling with.

Lowell's work for Chessman lead to an opportunity to do additional spots for Collier's Cartoon Editor, Gurney Williams. Collier's ran a regular humorous column called "48 States of Mind" which required several postage stamp-sized cartoons each week. Around 1950 or '51, Williams offered Lowell the chance to do a few of these spots.

Unfortunately, because of their small size, they are the sort of thing one might pay very little attention to when reading the column or flipping through the magazine. You get the sense that the AD's intention was not much more than to break up a large field of dull grey type with a little bit of decorative colour.

But look closer...

There are wonderful details,

amusing concepts,

and great character design...

... invested In real estate not much larger than your thumbnail.

Gurney Williams obviously thought so too.

In his scrap books of old printed samples, Lowell had carefully clipped and saved many of those tiny spots. Among them he enclosed a post-it note about the assignment for Williams, indicating that he had produced a year's worth of them for Collier's.

Here, for your amusement - and inspiration - are a few more (blown up big enough to properly appreciate).

* My Lowell Hess Flickr set.

Rockwell to Parker: Praise for the Little Things

leifpeng@gmail.com (Leif Peng) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:56:00 +0000

Back in July we looked at a fan letter Norman Rockwell wrote to Al Parker and wondered about the piece that had so moved Rockwell to pen what was only the second fan letter he ever wrote to a fellow artist. Having not been able to locate the image in my old magazine collection I had long since moved on.

Little did I know that David Apatoff had enlisted the aid of the inimitable Jaleen Grove to hunt down that image at all costs. This past weekend I was surprised and delighted to receive the scans below, along with a note from David and Jaleen:

"Since you are the one who introduced me to the Rockwell letter and you raised the issue, it seems fitting to hand this image back to you to complete the circuit with your readers." wrote David.

"It is not at all what I expected, and I still want to think a bit about why this particular picture moved Rockwell to write. At a minimum, I give Rockwell credit for being more open minded than I would have supposed."

Jaleen added, "I too am wondering what exactly Rockwell was awed by. A strong composition, yes - I like the vase shape echoing the figure - and the radical angle of the pole, and maybe even the model's weird pose - but I don't think I would have paused in page-flipping had I not known about Rockwell's letter."

Jaleen, who has the great fortune to spend some time each month with Walt Reed at the Illustration House, happened to be there at the time of her writing:

"Walt just walked by," wrote Jaleen, "and I solicited his opinion."

"He figures Rockwell had been meaning to write Al for a long time and just found the issuing of this picture to be a convenient moment. Walt says he went to a talk Rockwell gave "quite a few years before" 1948, when Al was just starting out. There, Rockwell praised Al, particularly for the "small things he did" - like that pipe on the window ledge, the odd pose. Walt thinks it looks spontaneous enough to have been done from life."

David brought the discussion to a conclusion with this well-reasoned theory:

"After a little reflection, I guess I would refine my thoughts on the Rockwell fan letter as follows: By the time Rockwell wrote that letter he had spent nearly 40 years painting with oil paints on large canvases. He worked 6 days a week using a laborious, 15 stage progress with a variety of chemicals and drying agents. Despite Rockwell's magnificent achievement, he must have looked somewhat wistfully at the young Al Parker painting light, spontaneous, unconventional paintings with water based casein and gouache on small illustration boards. I'm sure Rockwell couldn't help but think about all the time he had spent waiting for paint to dry over the last 40 years, and all of the airy brush strokes, such as Parker's, that had been buried in layers of underpainting. The new world of illustration would be one where far less time was spent on implementation and far more time was spent on the imaginative and conceptual parts of the job. I'm guessing Rockwell understood the potential significance of that changing ratio. Parker didn't ask for permission to change the world, he took it. And I think Rockwell must have respected that, too. So perhaps this letter is symbollic of Rockwell's blessing for the future of illustration."

"It's all rampant speculation, of course, but Jaleen and I were both struck by the fact that Parker's illustration didn't seem like the kind of dazzling artistic performance that would inspire the second fan letter of Rockwell's life. On the other hand, if you look at the white space, the stream of pages that integrate the illustration by flowing from the background for the story's title into rough pencil sketches in the illustration itself, the unusual angle on the woman, the conspicuous brush strokes left in place-- Rockwell must have felt like the last neanderthal peering out of the woods at this strange new life form, the cromagnon man standing in the glen. I think it is a measure of Rockwell's quality as a person and an artist that he didn't think, "In my day, artists really had to work..." nor did he think, "If I were starting out today, I could be so much more prolific and have so much more fun...." He didn't even think, "how many brain cells have I lost by inhaling turpentine fumes for the past 40 years?" No, he thought, "what a wonderful, lively new aproach." That's someone who truly loves art."

How about you, dear reader... what do you think?

*ADDENDUM* Tom Watson sent a comment that requires a visual accompaniment, so for those who have been following th]e flow of the discussion, you might want to read the comments section first, then return here to read and consider the following...

Tom writes, "When I saw the Al Parker 1948 LHJ cover, it reminded me of the Norman Rockwell 1939 Saturday EP cover, painted over 9 years before Parker's cover. Both have vignette figures, and both have type designed around the figures. This was quite advanced for 1939, and I'm fairly certain Rockwell designed and lettered the type as he did on occasions for other illustration assignments."

"IMO, it is as innovative in concept and well designed as Al Parker's version. I can't say for sure that Parker was influenced by anything Rockwell did, but this would be a remarkable coincidence, if he was unaware of Rockwell's innovative designing of figures and type, which was not just a one time shot. I think Chad Sterling was accurate in his assessment of Parker's LHJ cover- "The image of mother and daughter for example is very reminiscent of a Rockwell illustration in composition and spirit". I hope you agree with me, that in spite of Rockwell's corn-ball subject matter, his creativity wasn't so behind the times.. for a "Neanderthal". ;-) "

"I think posting the comparisons would be interesting to your viewers."

* There's more to see and read as this week's CAWS "goes wild" at Charlie Allen's Blog

* And the long lost artwork of a Toronto illustration legend is finally unearthed at Storyboard Central

* Finally, with Hallowe'en fast approaching, get in a ghoulish mood with Simon Peng's twisted tale, "Something Gory" at Leifdrawing 101