Today's Inspiration

Who Was Ray Houlihan?

noreply@blogger.com (Leif Peng) — Mon, 13 May 2013 18:23:00 +0000

A few years ago I found this illustration in a 1954 issue of Saga magazine. It's by an artist named Ray Houlihan...

... and I was quite taken by his style.

I hoped I'd be able to find more of Houlihan's artwork, although I hadn't come across it in any of the mainstream magazines, like Collier's or the Post, of which I'd already amassed a substantial number of issues.

Happily, not long after that, I acquired a small stack of Bluebook magazines from the early '50s. I was delighted to discover that Houlihan had illustrated stories in a couple of the issues I'd purchased.

The distinctive look of his pen and ink technique really made an impression on me.

Here's a spread by Houlihan from this September 1951 Bluebook story.

Notice how effectively he alternates light, shadow, light, shadow across this composition. Impressive. The limitations of printing on Bluebook's cheap pulp paper doesn't diminish anything in Houlihan's illustration. In fact, the combination of that course paper and Houlihan's rough-edged pen technique seem to be made for each other.

Another Bluebook story illustrated by Houlihan, this one from 1953.

Much like the Saga illustration at the top of this post, here it appears that Houlihan used a scratchboard overlay sheet to add texture and detail on the single colour plate.

At that time, I managed to find just one more set of story illustrations by Ray Houlihan in the March 1953 issue of Bluebook.

Aside from this handful of illustrations from some men's adventure magazines, from a brief period in the early '50s, I could locate no other examples of - or any biographical information about - Ray Houlihan.

It was as though he'd appeared only briefly and in just one place...

... then slipped quietly away into the ether, never to be heard from again.

The Internet was a very different place back then, with far fewer resources than are available today, just six or seven years later. Recently I dug out the back-up CD on which I'd saved these scans of Ray Houlihan's art and did a little looking, both online and in my now even larger collection of old magazines.

I'm happy to report that I now have quite a bit of information about and 'new' artwork by Ray Houlihan. The entire picture is still incomplete...

... but what I've managed to find I'll share with you this week.

Fred Steffen in the 1970s Childcraft Books

noreply@blogger.com (Leif Peng) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 11:02:00 +0000

* Things are a bit hectic for me at this time so, as you may have noticed, new posts will be intermittent (depending on my schedule). Sorry for that... I should be able to get back to a stable schedule in a week or two. ~ Leif

About a year ago I posted some examples of 1950s album cover art by a Chicago illustrator named Fred Steffen...

Recently I happened upon some 'new' artwork by Steffen - this time from the 1970s. Fred Steffen provided title page artwork for each chapter in Volume 10 of the 1972 edition of Childcraft, The How and Why Library.

Seen at actual printed size, these illustrations are bit indecipherable.

But have a look: when we zoom in on the individual elements... they're wonderful!

Here you can see Steffen's distinctive linear ink line style and complex but well organized use of detail.

As a group, these illustrations have a trippy look so reminiscent of the era in which they were created.

I don't really have any new information of Steffen, so I'll just leave you to scroll through this series and enjoy their groovy quirkiness.

* This week, as time allows, I'll be featuring more artwork by a variety of illustrators from the 1970s editions of Childcraft, The How and Why Library.

Robert J. Lee: "The career has gone just great."

noreply@blogger.com (Leif Peng) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 19:14:00 +0000

Recently, Robert J. Lee's daughter, Robin Lee, wrote to me: "Before my dad died in 1994, he dictated a bunch of stories from childhood. I put together a small booklet transcribed from tapes he made of his life. There is at least a snippet that could be interesting."

Most of the text consists of personal anecdotes from throughout his life, but on the last page Lee sums up his thoughts on his career:

"At age 70 I can look back and say at age 30 I was in "Who's Who in American Art." And the biography is very solid. My first painting I ever sold was out of the El Burracho bar in San Francisco. I think I got $35 for it."

"I can recall the lady calling me on the phone and asking if I'd come down in price. I gather that would have been after the war so I would have been 24 or 25. Recently I sold a painting for $15,000 so in 50 years I've come up a little bit in the world."

"The career has been great. Ups and downs. Depression and happiness."

"I guess my favorite stuff about the career is going on assignments, traveling. The most fun travel was for Allstate Insurance and Sears, going to the Southwest with two little girls and Lucy in a big station wagon in 1964."

"And we had all kinds of wondrous adventures."

"The other travels on assignments that I've taken have been mainly for the Air Force. They would send me to different bases and later I would do a painting, take lots of photos and later go to an opening of the exhibition of people who had taken these trips to the Society of Illustrators and the Air Force. The exhibit would be at the Society of Illustrators and later moved down to D.C."

"And then we would go down there for a black-tie dinner. It was great fun seeing, as I get older, people I've known for 35 or 40 years that had been on trips; a lot of guys 70 years old that I know are still working artists."

"I know I still am."

"The length of time that I put in the studio has diminished a lot but I think I am painting fairly well."

* Thanks to Robin Lee for sharing these remarks from her dad, Robert J. Lee, with us. Robin is a freelance nonfiction writer who enjoys telling people's life stories. If you are interested in reaching her, email me and I'll forward your message to Robin. The text of today's post is © 2013 Robin Lee

Robert J. Lee: "There must be a constant probing of one's mind to paint something meaningful"

noreply@blogger.com (Leif Peng) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 15:44:00 +0000

In 1968 the editors of American Artist magazine presented the work of illustrator Robert J. Lee. Accompanying his art they compiled interviews, correspondences and "several pages of informal notes" into a single 'digest' of Lee's thoughts on a broad range of topics related to his life as an artist.

Here is the 4th and final excerpt:

"Most of my children's books are done in mixed media."

"Tales of the Arabian Nights, published by Whitman, is a good example of this. It was created in a mixture of charcoal, designer's colors, casein, watercolor, pecil, and pastel, bleeding through and over and around each other."

"In both oil and mixed media I paint with sable brushes, but from different paint pots, naturally."

"I am not fond of hard edged painting usually, but I hadn't given it much thought till, in talking to an editor, he pointed out to me how all of my edges were quite feathery in paintings done a few years ago."

"David with a Sling" and the newer paintings, Holy Men and Puerto Rican Landscape, were not as "smokey" or "feathery."

"I feel the newer paintings to be a bit more solid as they rely less on technique, style, or mannerisms which can often be short lived."

"Possibly one of the reasons for painting in a rather looser manner is that I have done so much really tight rendering over the years..."

"... that when I get a chance to paint in any manner I wish, I like painting wet with slow drying linseed oil that can be pushed around, feathered and smeared with the hand."

"Much of my painting is actually done with the fingers."

"I am becoming more and more involved in a love for good drawing. One of the things concerning drawing I have observed in students over the years: they separate drawing and painting into two different sections of their mental attitude towards an art problem. They often think in terms of "doing a drawing" and then filling it in with color, which they think of as painting."

"Drawing with the paint while painting, I feel, makes for greater solidity in picture making. A mountain has anatomy just as much as a mammal, as does a tree or a building, but to feel that inner structure, one must paint with draughtsmanship rather than simply covering over a fine drawing with color."

"There is a dangerous tendency, when one becomes technically proficient, to work sort of automatically with 'the mind in neutral.' Strangely enough, while I do not know any real intellectuals who are top-flight artists, most of the artists I know are involved in intellectual endeavors. There must be a constant probing of one's mind to paint something meaningful, aided by research which goes on year after year involving so many possible subjects."

Tomorrow: an addendum

Robert J. Lee: "The life of a real working artist is tough work, mentally and physically."

noreply@blogger.com (Leif Peng) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 17:29:00 +0000

In 1968 the editors of American Artist magazine presented the work of illustrator Robert J. Lee. Accompanying his art they compiled interviews, correspondences and "several pages of informal notes" into a single 'digest' of Lee's thoughts on a broad range of topics related to his life as an artist.

Here is the 3rd excerpt:

"I have little patience with exhibitions of "black on black" or a green circle on a white ground and all the psuedo-intellectual gibberish that usually accompanies such shows. It's all been done a thousand times and the individuality of the painter is lost completely."

"I fully understand the protests, the rebellion, the need for change; the sloshing of paint with rude brushes, the solid red canvas. This was inevitable. The things I object to are the "taste makers" throwing everything else out, and the misguided young artist who has been duped into thinking the art field is all a crazy, a wild, mishmash of self indulgence, completely without discipline. Make no mistake, the life of a real working artist is tough work, mentally and physically."

"The most troublesome problem I have is time. Working six or seven days a week seems less than the time I need to illustrate, experiment, paint and teach. I'm not sure about the line, "an artist should reflect his times." I estimate I paint about seventy illustrations and paintings a year. Each of these involves a new situation, a fresh idea, and usually research of some kind (one does not paint a very realistic illustration for a nature book on North American mammals, from memory.)"

"I work in just about any media depending upon the assignment or inspiration. If someone is paying $1,500 for an illustration I can afford to stretch a four-foot canvas and spend some time doing an oil."

"For a textbook page paying $150 I work in wash or casein, and usually in small scale (one-and-one-half times larger than the printed illustration is my normal procedure.)"

"Preliminary sketches bore me, especially if the sketch is made or required to be so complete as to take the creative surge out of the final painting. I normally do a "comp" for clients buying an illustration from me, and I find that sometimes it is much better than the finished art because of the spontaneity factor which the rough had and the painting lacked."

"I draw my pictures in charcoal rather roughly, then go over these lines in brush and ink, because my next step is a series of neutral washes, and without the ink lines my drawing would be lost. Painting on a flat white surface would be most distracting to me."

"I once did a mural on a yellow wall, and within less than an hour my normal good color sense had left me. Reds looked brown and greens went dead, and yet, upon arrival each morning to begin work, the mural looked fine - all the colors made sense, but as soon as the work of mixing colors and resuming the job had gone on for a time, the same reaction took place."

"I find the best tone for me on canvas is gray-green."

"I work standing at a beat-up easel. My palette is about three feet square and hasn't been cleaned in ten years, so it looks like a relief map of the Andes Mountains! My palette is rather limited, probably harking back to my student days of limited means for buying paint. However, I see no reason for six blues or eight reds on the same palette!"

* Continued tomorrow

Robert J. Lee: "My own background is right out of John Steinbeck."

noreply@blogger.com (Leif Peng) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 20:44:00 +0000

Robert J. Lee: "I never stop painting mentally"

noreply@blogger.com (Leif Peng) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 20:33:00 +0000

For some time now I've been quite taken by the work of a mid-20th century illustrator named Robert J. Lee. I first encountered it in a book I found several years ago at a thrift shop.

Lee's distinctive style, so richly colourful and swirling with painterly energy, seems perfect for fantastical stories of magic and mythology.

Until recently I knew very little about Robert J. Lee (I had 'set him aside' so to speak, while focusing on learning about other illustrators) then a search online turned up a biography, a photo, and some interesting details.

Even better, an old issue of American Artist magazine from 1968 features an article on Lee wherein he speaks extensively on a variety of subjects. It turns out Lee was a very interesting guy with a lot on his mind!

This week I'll be sharing images by the artist - both from my collection of old books and magazines and some found online - and accompany them with excerpts from the article in American Artist.

Back in 1968, the editors at the magazine described Lee as "spirited," and "effervescent" and said their questions had been answered with "forceful statements." Ultimately the editors felt it would be best to simply compile his thoughts and conversations into a stand-alone digest and run it over several pages.

And so I shall do the same...

"I have always been rather suspicious of articulate painters, but maybe the reason lies in the fact that an artist's life is, by necessity, one of being alone most of the time and communication with words is difficult. Perhaps one's work should be enough without talking about it, but I seldom turn down lecture requests even though it's terribly hard work. I find the questions from the audience, whether it be an adult art organization or a group of students, to be about the same in California as in New York. How did I 'get started'; what schools did I attend; how does one develop a style. Occasionally I get an original question. A lady, on viewing one of my three foot high oil paintings for Heroes of the Bible asked "Is the book really going to be that large?"

"They also ask what I like and dislike, as if an artist has some magic words of wisdom, or lives in a world apart. I never stop painting mentally so that my surroundings or the people in it seem a bit cloudy in retrospect. Perhaps the only reality is in the working. No, I have no hobbies, really. I love nature inordinately, I feed birds, I garden a bit. Gold is for some other breed or species."

"In the area I live in I have seen a harmless ten pound bobcat, dead, tied proudly to some idiot's fender. I once saw two black bear cubs, tied in bloody bundles on top of a station wagon. I loathe these "sportsmen."

* Continued tomorrow

Much More from Mitchell Hooks

noreply@blogger.com (Leif Peng) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 20:06:00 +0000

Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame inductee (for 1999) Mitchell Hooks passed away last weekend. Here are some examples of his tremendous talent, from various volumes of Readers Digest Condensed Books from the '60s, '70s and '80s.

* Much more of Mitchell Hooks artwork in my Mitchell Hooks Flickr set.

Good-bye Mitchell Hooks (1923 - 2013)

noreply@blogger.com (Leif Peng) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:04:00 +0000

A couple of days ago on Facebook, Dan Zimmer of Illustration Magazine shared some sad news: last weekend, Mitchell Hooks passed away.

How particularly strange to hear Mitch was gone, having just featured his work once again only a couple of weeks ago right here on the TI blog. I had some wonderful phone conversations with Mitch and, in 2010, I actually got to meet him, talk with him in person over a long lunch at the Society of Illustrators and shake the hand of one of my illustration idols. I will always cherish those memories. Mitchell Hooks was a spectacularly talented artist and a warm, humble and generous person.

The illustration at the top was published in Redbook magazine in July 1961. The one immediately below in April '61.

Here are a few more pieces by Mitchell that I haven't previously presented. These are from Reader's Digest Condensed Books, circa 1980.

In Mitchell's memory, I'm re-presenting Part 1 of my interview from 2008...

Mitchell Hooks: "I always drew..."
(First presented on Tuesday, September 09, 2008)

Mitchell Hooks was born in 1923 in Detroit. He didn't come from a particularly artistic family, though he did have an uncle whom he describes as 'quite a good self-taught artist' who encouraged his interest in art. Says Mitch, "I always drew."

His earliest influences were the adventure strips in the newspaper, especially Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim and Secret Agent X-9. "As a boy, I followed Raymond's work avidly," chuckles the artist today, "even to the point of clipping out the strips and keeping them in a scrapbook. I'd meticulously cut out the figures of Flash, Dale and Dr. Zarkov."

"I've always had an affinity for anatomical drawing and, in retrospect, I can attribute my abilities to the long hours spent studying Raymond's beautiful drawings."

Mitch attended CAS Technical High School in Detroit, "A marvelous school," that had been created for those city kids who really had no hope of ever attending college."The way we grew up," says Mitch, "we didn't even know how to spell 'college'."

"CAS was loaded with professional illustrators, designers and such, just great people, who taught us everything we needed to know to get a job in the profession."

"I was thrown in with a bunch of kids who were really enthusiastic about illustration. We all knew what was going on out there in the magazines... knew about Al Parker and the Cooper guys and all that, and CAS prepared us to go out in the field - and we did - we all went out and got jobs in the field, straight out of high school!"

"CAS was where I made my big leap from Alex Raymond to wanting to be a professional illustrator, and I knew I wanted to be in New York."

When Mitch graduated from CAS he first found a job at General Motors. The war was on, GM had been converted to supplying the American army with equipment, and Mitch was assigned to take two dimensional blueprints and convert them to three dimensional drawings. "It was important work," says Mitch, "and I hated it."

Hated it so much that just a couple of years later, when he joined the army, he made sure they knew nothing about his artistic abilities. "I was so afraid that they'd assign me to do more of those drawings that I intentionally flunked any tests that might reveal my skills." Mitch decided he's rather risk the shooting war than get stuck doing any more dreaded blueprint drawings! He became an infantryman in 1944 - and served as a second lieutenant with the U.S. occupation forces in Germany after the war ended.

Upon his return to the States, he made his way to New York. He had freelanced in Detroit for a year or so after leaving GM, and had diligently prepared a portfolio of samples he hoped would land him the sort of work he wanted to do. A previous visit to the the Big Apple before his army service had resulted in an opportunity with a minor studio called T.J. Peters. "Peters had a small bullpen of artists and I got on staff there," says Mitch. But all the while he was looking for something bigger, and that came in the form of freelance work done on the side for Al Chaite.

Chaite would go on to form, with artist Harry Fredman, one of the major players in the New York commercial art scene: the high-profile Fredman/Chaite Studios... but for now he was managing a smaller operation called Trager-Phillips. Mitch, while working at Peters, found plenty of freelance opportunities with Trager-Phillips, and "it caused a small conflict with my boss at T.J. Peters."

You can read what became of that conflict - and much, much more - in the remaining three instalments of my 2008 interview with Mitchell Hooks:

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

* Tomorrow I'll present a raft of illustrations by Mitchell from Reader's Digest Condensed Books.

*More art in my Mitchell Hooks Flickr set.

A Few More from Robert Shore

noreply@blogger.com (Leif Peng) — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 14:44:00 +0000

Here is the earliest pieces I've found by Robert Shore, from 1953.

And this one, below, which was apparently a plate in a 1950s edition of Edgar Allen Poe's "Fall of the House of Usher."

Included in the 1960 American Artist magazine article on Shore was a sketch for an illustration that appeared in an Abbot Laboratories promotional magazine called "What's New."

The sketch resulted from Shore first researching a variety of photographs of actual train wrecks. Shore's composite drawing includes elements culled from the artist's imagination as well as elements of the research photos. The finished illustration, below, was painted in casein on gessoed masonite.

Casein seems to have been Robert Shore's preferred medium at the time of the 1960 article, so it's very likely he employed it for this double page spread in Parents magazine just a year later.

Shore describes working in heavy casein impasto, blocking in major forms...

... then moving on to thin casein glazes mixed with damar emulsion.

"I prefer casein to oil because it suits my temperament," said Shore. "I need to be able to make immediate, intuitive changes. The drying time of oil is too slow for me; I cannot wait to cover a bad area."

Above, a plate from Herman Melville's Billy Budd, which Shore illustrated in 1965 and below, a spread from Boys' Life magazine, 1966.

At a point in the early 60s (and I was unable to determine an exact date) Robert Shore was invited to participate in an unprecedented artistic endeavor.

"In March 1962, James Webb, Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, suggested that artists be enlisted to document the historic effort to send the first human beings to the moon."

"John Walker, director of the National Gallery of Art, was among those who applauded the idea, urging that artists be encouraged "…not only to record the physical appearance of the strange new world which space technology is creating, but to edit, select and probe for the inner meaning and emotional impact of events which may change the destiny of our race."

"Working together, James Dean, a young artist employed by the NASA Public Affairs office, and Dr. H. Lester Cooke, curator of paintings at the National Gallery of Art, created a program that dispatched artists to NASA facilities with an invitation to paint whatever interested them."

"The result was an extraordinary collection of works of art proving, as one observer noted, "that America produced not only scientists and engineers capable of shaping the destiny of our age, but also artists worthy to keep them company." ~ quote and images from The Smithsonian National Air and Space museum website

Below, (by coincidence?) Robert Shore was commissioned to paint this very space-like image for Boys' Life, October 1965

Another Boy's Life spread and small spot, this time from 1969, that suggest Shore's style was shifting in new directions.

The final piece I have by Robert Shore (from 1973) shows a surprising degree of realism. And for me, a startling realization that, as a child, I had an intimate familiarity with at least one illustration by the artist. I owned a copy of this book when I was nine...

... and that cover scared the bujeezuz out of me!

Robert Shore: "When I approach a painting or an illustration, I am concerned with the graphic drama of the interplay of shape, form, and color."

noreply@blogger.com (Leif Peng) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 14:51:00 +0000

Robert Shore was born in 1924 in New York City. He studied at the Cranbrook Academy (under Zoltan Sepeshy and Bill McVey)and the Art Students League.

By the time these pieces above and below were published in Redbook magazine in 1961, Shore was himself a teacher; first at Cooper Union and then at New York's School of Visual Arts. His work had been exhibited at the Detroit Institute of Fine Arts, the National Academy, and the Smithsonian Institution. In 1967 he was awarded a gold medal by the Society of Illustrators.

Working in Realism was obviously not a a problem for Shore (as demonstrated above) but he seems to have been much more interested in exploring other approaches. "Some of today's best illustration is done by artists who never studied to be illustrators at all," said Shore. "But instead were trained in related fields of painting, printmaking and sculpture."

"Their natural approach, stimulated by contact with these fields, has made them admirably equipped to meet the exacting graphic demands of industry."

Robert Shore embraced that idea of a broad artistic background: he created sculptures and ceramics, taking first prize for sculpture in the 1954 Young American Craftsmen Show.

Regarding the execution of this woodcut, which he carved into a 3-foot-long plank, Shore said, "I love the physical act of cutting into a soft wood. It brings together the the most exciting qualities of sculpture and the graphic arts. Like all techniques that require real physical participation, it is extremely satisfying."

"My prime motivation for a pictorial idea may be something I have seen or felt or simply stumbled upon," said Shore. "When I approach a painting or an illustration, I am concerned with the graphic drama of the interplay of shape, form, and color."

"Very often the subject matter merely acts as a catalyst which begins the action of design."

"I don't mean by this that I am not interested in subject matter. But I'm interested in it only insofar as it contributes to the possibilities of pictorial drama."

* Continued tomorrow

Robert Shore: "Every artist should follow his own drummer, but on this journey he should keep an open mind."

noreply@blogger.com (Leif Peng) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 20:12:00 +0000

"Some of the artists I admire most," said Robert Shore, "are Klee, Goya..."

"... Rembrandt and Picasso, and many of the pre-Renaissance painters."

"All of them were deeply involved with the subject but never to the point where they neglected the over-all pictorial concept."

"Every artist should follow his own drummer, but on this journey he should keep an open mind, eye, and heart to all that is going on about him in both art and life."

"In one's search for a personal idiom, there can be no substitute for the study of the great traditions in art. I cannot think of a period in art in which there aren't works to my liking."

* Continued tomorrow.

Robert Shore: "First and foremost, one should try to find oneself as an artist."

noreply@blogger.com (Leif Peng) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 18:16:00 +0000

For some time, I've been intrigued by the work of an artist named Robert Shore.

(A photo of the artist, circa 1960)

Having stumbled across his illustrations here and there for several years now - but never consistently - I've been curious about where he fit into 'the bigger picture' of illustration in the '50s and '60s.

The first occasion I had to see Shore's work was in a 1957 issue of Collier's.

By no means a big splash of an illustration, but it's charming quality of stylization and energetic painting technique caught my attention.

Then, for the longest time, I could not find another example of Shore's work.

The next time I saw a Robert Shore illustration it was in Redbook magazine. Shore painted a beautiful spread for the December 1962 issue.

But this was somehow different. Yes, there was a lovely textural quality to the paint, much like that earlier Shore piece, but this artwork seemed more realistic (in spite of an obviously deliberate abstraction to the overall design). I wondered, could this be the same Robert Shore?

A couple of years passed before I had my answer. I discovered an article on Shore in the November 1960 issue of American Artist magazine which demonstrated just how diverse Robert Shore's work could be.

The article takes pains to establish that Shore was both a fine artist and a commercial one - and was comfortable and proficient working in many styles and mediums.

Most satisfying of all was reading Shore's own words, in which he describes his personal philosophy regarding picture-making:

"First and foremost," said Shore, "one should try to find oneself as an artist. One should study painting, sculpture, and design, and, infact, investigate all the creative aspects and possibilities in art."

That certainly sits well with me and helps explains why I had felt so pleasantly surprised by each new Robert Shore illustration I came across...

I still don't have a whole lot of this artist's work to share with you - but I have enough - and at last I have some relevant information to accompany the images. This week: a look at the work of illustrator/fine artist/educator Robert Shore.

* Continued tomorrow.

Naiad & Walter Einsel's "Art from the Heart"

noreply@blogger.com (Leif Peng) — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 17:29:00 +0000

I had wanted to post about this for Valentine's Day, but it didn't work out. No matter - any time's a good time to spread a little love!

This is the cover of Naiad Einsel's book, which she was working on when I first interviewed her in 2006. "Walter and I loved Valentine's Day," said Naiad. "It was a big day for us. We loved it more than Christmas. We loved it more than birthdays."

Just before Christmas last year, I was delighted to discover Naiad had completed her book (it can be ordered at this link) which collects the hand-made valentines she and husband Walter exchanged annually during all the years of their life together. When they were a young couple living in a one-room apartment in Manhattan, they would put a dividing screen in the middle of the room while they worked on their valentines.

While Naiad always created artworks on paper for Walter (like the beautiful design above) Walter's valentines for Naiad began to take on an added dimension.

"Each year these efforts became more complex," said Naiad. "What started out as collages with old decorations and rubber stamps incorporated into the design, evolved around 1960 into elaborate 3-dimensional sculptures carved in wood, with internal whirling disks and moving parts."

This remarkable little book (it measures just 9" square) is a wonderful document of a lifetime of creativity by two tremendously talented artists. It's also a very personal window on a life-long passionate love affair. Naiad has given us permission to share in that intimate relationship through her and Walter's words, pictures and sculptures. If you're like me, you will close this book feeling genuinely touched by the experience.

Walter Einsel passed away in 1999 but happily, Naiad is still going strong at age 86.

Nolan Pelletier, an illustrator who visited Naiad last year sent me a note saying, "Naiad's doing really well! She's an amazing person. I'll be visiting again in a few weeks, and will hopefully get to see her collection of clippings of Jerome Snyder, Joseph Low, and other great illustrators' work. [Her home is] an amazing museum of her and Walter's work. Every inch of space is carefully curated, full of beautiful things, and all kept meticulously clean. It's heaven."

If you're interested in ordering your own copy of Naiad Einsel's Art from the Heart, you can do so at this link.

*Art from the Heart is © 2008, 2013 Naiad Einsel

The 1967 GE Calendar

noreply@blogger.com (Leif Peng) — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 15:45:00 +0000

This has been languishing on my hard drive for too long: well over a year ago TI list member Don Rogers, an illustrator and educator at the Savannah College of Art & Design, sent me scans of the 1967 GE promotional calendar.

The calendar's clearly seen better days - but nonetheless, what a treasure! And especially because GE was kind enough to include a page of photos and bios of all the artists who contributed that year. I'm fascinated to at last see the faces of the actual illustrators, many of whom are familiar names, and some who have been featured on Today's Inspiration.

Unfortunately a couple of pages are missing in action. A real shame; I'd love to have seen Howard Terpning and Rob't McCall's paintings... but still, what a line up! Enjoy this rare treat and thanks again to Don Rogers for generously sharing this with us!

* My previous post on Neil Boyle

* My previous post on David Blossom

* My previous post on Marilyn Conover

Further research suggests that GE published an annual promo calendar like this one every year for the better part of the 20th century. A few from the early '60s are currently available on ebay and look to have been illustrated by some of the same artists. Hopefully we'll get a chance to see more of these GE calendar illustrations in the future!

Jim Schaeffing Interviewed

noreply@blogger.com (Leif Peng) — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 17:57:00 +0000

The last few weeks have been pretty intense around here, featuring one massive interview after another. This week I'm taking a bit of a breather; featuring a small item each day. Today I'd like to let you know about an interview with Jim Schaeffing on another blog.

Schaeffing worked at the Charles E. Cooper studio in the 1950s and like so many other Cooper artists, his work is reminiscent of the type done by Coby Whitmore or Joe DeMers.

Recently I received a message from Rachel Davies, who has a blog called Old Soul Retro Times. Rachel wrote, "I was fortunate enough to have Jim share his story with me. Any help in spreading this around would be much appreciated."

So if you'd like to see more of Jim Schaeffing's art (including his recent work) and a couple of photos of the artist, drop by Rachel's blog and enjoy! Click here for her interview with Jim Schaeffing

* Thanks to Heritage Auctions for allowing me to use these scans from their archives.

A Visit with Mitchell Hooks, Part 5

noreply@blogger.com (Leif Peng) — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 14:53:00 +0000

In 1988 Gary Lovisi of Gryphon Books visited Mitchell Hooks at his Manhattan home/studio. He then published the resulting interview in Paperback Parade #7. With Gary's permission I'm presenting that interview this week, broken into five daily instalments... this being the conclusion. ~ Leif Peng

GL: Which paperback illustrators, either past or present, do you especially admire?

MH: Well, that's pretty easy; I like Bob McGinnis. He's a friend of mine and I think he's just a fine artist.

(Below, Robert McGinnis cover from 1960, courtesy of Ken Steacy)

MH: In the early days I admired James Avati very much. He's still working, by the way. He's well into his seventies and he's still putting out the paintings. I think those would be the two names I'd pick.

(Below, James Avati cover from 1954)

MH: Barye Phillips was also a unique one all by himself. He was terrifically productive, and could put out three times as much as I could. He made a lot of money because he got paid the same and he was very fast.

(Below, Barye Phillips cover from 1957)

MH: Also Sandy Kossin, another friend, and whom I think is a wonderful artist.

(Below, Sandy Kossin cover from 1960)

GL: What did they pay you in those days?

MH: The figure $300 comes to mind and I think that was standard for a long time. You had to hire models out of that, pay photography, and pay for costumes. I sure never got rich doing covers, but it paid the rent.

GL: What's your biggest challenge as a paperback illustrator/ Either in general, or is there a particular book that really challenged you?

MH: It wouldn't have been a particular book. For most of the time, my assignments didn't come too easily. I always had to work very hard to get my ideas worked out. It's funny, in recent years it's become much easier. I suppose you get wiser and finally figure out what things are all about. So I find it fairly easy now. It wouldn't have been a particular book. The hardest problem always was to get the right idea for a cover, and trying to get it as good as I could do it. That was always very hard for me. I'd read the book and worry about it. Make sketches, worry some more. Make sketches again and often have them changed.

(Below, book cover sketches by Mitchell Hooks, American Artist magazine, Summer 1957)

MH: But in the last six or eight years it's gotten a lot easier and it's just got to be that as you get older you start to figure things out.

(Below, Mitchell Hooks promo page from his rep, Joe Mendola, 1985)

GL: What do you see in the future as trends or styles in paperback illustrating? I know you touched on realism in illustration. Do you see any other things that might be big in the future/ I see a lot of design today.

MH: Very much, especially in the typography of the cover. There's no doubt that a Baroque kind of design is popular with all the paperback publishers. They're outdoing each other for highly ornate lettering in the titles, complicated type design in the cover design.

GL: What projects can we look forward to from you in the future? You've already mentioned the detective covers you're doing for Ballantine.

GL: Are you still doing magazine illustration?

MH: Sure, but it depends on the jobs that come in. I have an agent, we have calls, we do a lot of promotions of my work and color brochures and that sort of thing.

(Below, Mitchell Hooks promo pages from his rep, Joe Mendola, 1988, 1990 respectively)

MH: The work that's been steady has been work for Ballantine Books, I do work for Doubleday's Literary Guild, and their Book-of-the-Month Club brochures. I'm doing work for Good Housekeeping magazine, and quite a lot of work for Avon Cosmetics which is never seen. They're a bit fashion-oriented, though they're not strictly fashion drawings.

GL: So you're doing a lot of different things now.

MH: Well, I don't do as many paperbacks as I once did. For about 15 or 20 years that's all I did. There wasn't much other work around, but in recent years I've sort of evolved away from there and it's kind of nice, I get to do a variety of work.

* Thanks again to Gary Lovisi for allowing me to transcribe his interview with Mitchell Hooks this week! The text above is copyright 1988 & 2013 by Gary Lovisi and originally appeared in Paperback Parade #7 (Gryphon Books)

Gary's website: www.gryphonbooks.com

* Thanks to UK Vintage for the use of his vintage paperback cover scans in today's post.

A Visit with Mitchell Hooks, Part 4

noreply@blogger.com (Leif Peng) — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 18:50:00 +0000

A Visit with Mitchell Hooks, Part 3

noreply@blogger.com (Leif Peng) — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 16:10:00 +0000

A Visit with Mitchell Hooks, Part2

noreply@blogger.com (Leif Peng) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 17:33:00 +0000

In 1988 Gary Lovisi of Gryphon Books visited Mitchell Hooks at his Manhattan home/studio. He then published the resulting interview in Paperback Parade #7. With Gary's permission I'm presenting that interview this week, broken into five daily instalments... ~ Leif Peng

GL: I think a lot of people thought that in the forties and fifties an artist just read the book and decided all by himself what he wanted to do for the cover, then just did it. I see it's a lot more complicated than that.

MH: Well it can be done that way too, but you've always got to submit a sketch of what you're going to do and either get it approved or knocked down.

(Below, a page of sketches done for the 1956 Bantam Books cover above, from American Artist magazine, Summer 1957)

GL: What medium is your favorite to work in?

MH: I work in oils. I work in an underpainting of inks, with my basic painting inked over pencil drawings. Then I isolate that with varnish and do the finished painting in oils.

GL: Do you use photographs? Sketches?

MH: All the time. I also use models. If I have some background material that's going to show, if it's at all possible, I go out and photograph it.

GL: Some of the women you've painted for paperback covers are very beautiful and sensuous, such as the woman on "Sleepless Moon," "Someone to Love," and "Gentle Annie" to name a few.

GL: Are these models or from imagination?

MH: They're all models. But I'm like anybody, I appreciate drawing beautiful women, but I like them to have character, to have a niceness about them.

GL: I think that certainly comes through. They're not cheap or sleazy at all, they have class and elegance, but with a beauty and sensuousness that also comes through.

MH: I'm glad you see that because that's exactly what I always try to show.

GL: I've noticed that some of your covers are done in a very sharp and clear, almost sketch-like linear style;

... then on newer works, like "The Dying Trade" the art is almost like a photograph. It's almost like different people are doing the painting.

(Below, a Mitchell Hooks painting circa 1990)

MH: Well it is. I've changed... the times have changed. For years I was working in a linear style. I wasn't working in oils then, I was working in wash.

(Below, Cosmopolitan magazine, 1960)

MH: It was looser, more spontaneous, more designy, a slightly impressionistic way of working. It was what I felt good doing then.

MH: As I say, you've got a good eye. you picked up the differences, but what's happened in recent years is that there's been a change in the market. There's been a change in the art scene in general - not only talking about covers - but in the fine arts, gallery arts too. As you know there's been a shift in recent years to a more realistic way of painting., a return to drawing of the figure. We see it now in galleries and museums where even ten years ago it was not accepted. Now there's been a return to a more realistic way of painting. I changed my work in that direction.

(Below, a 1980s Mitchell Hooks cover painting, "Hannie Richards", courtesy of Joe Jusko)

MH: I did it consciously and deliberately, starting about a dozen years ago, getting away from that line style and going to a more realistic style. It was easy to do because I actually started out as a kid painting very realistically. So what you see in "The Dying Trade" is a very recent cover, and you're right, it's very realistic.

MH: It's the way I work now.

* Continued tomorrow

* The text above is copyright 1988 & 2013 by Gary Lovisi and originally appeared in Paperback Parade #7 (Gryphon Books)

Gary's website: www.gryphonbooks.com

* Thanks to UK Vintage for the use of his Mitchell Hooks paperback cover scans in today's post.

A Visit with Mitchell Hooks, Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Leif Peng) — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 12:07:00 +0000

In 1988 Gary Lovisi, editor and publisher of Gryphon Books visited Mitchell Hooks at his Manhattan home/studio. The resulting interview, entitled "A Visit with Mitchell Hooks", was published in Paperback Parade #7, a copy of which I acquired some time ago. This week - with Gary's permission - I'm presenting that interview in five daily instalments... ~ Leif Peng

GL: I would like to begin by asking you what was the first paperback cover painting that you did and how it came about?

MH: That's an interesting question. I've never been asked that. The very first one I did was the result of having made a sample painting for paperback publishers. I took the sample to Signet Books and they liked it. There was a man and a woman in it -- a very sexy woman.

MH: This was back in the early fifties, when absolutely every book had to have a sexy cover. It didn't matter what the book was, it could have been a cook book. It had to have a woman on the cover with prominent bosoms.

MH: Well, they decided they could use the cover, but some changes were made in it to fit a particular book they had in mind. So they had me paint out the guy and put in a different guy. That was the first cover I did.

GL: How did they make that decision? Was it the publisher, editor, or did they have art directors in those days?

MH: Oh yes, it's the same structure as it is now, it was editorial in some way that I wasn't in on. The painting was a bedroom scene, and most covers in those days were bedroom scenes, at least in serious novels. That's what this one was.

GL: How do you choose which scene to illustrate for a paperback cover?

MH: That comes about in different ways and often depends on the publisher that you're working for. When I was doing art for Bantam Books when Len Leone was there, invariably I made a sketch after he decided what he wanted to be on the cover.

MH: He was such a fine art director. He was in on their cover meetings and their cover subjects were decided in that conference before I was ever called in. That was Bantam's way of working.

MH: I'm not working for Bantam now so I'm not sure if they still do that.

I'm working now on quite a few covers for Ballantine Books, a series of mysteries by Peter Corris, the creator of an Australian private-eye. I've done half a dozen or so of those. The instructions I get from Ballantine Books are to show the hero in some kind of dramatic urban scene.

GL: Hardboiled?

MH: Not necessarily hardboiled, but in some sort of a suspenseful setting, which pretty much means a night scene of some sort. With strong colors, like neon lights, that kind of gaudy, cheap, sleazy type of city scene. These scenes are never supposed to show the features of his face, which are always supposed to be in deep shadows.

MH: So with those instructions the rest is up to me and I go out and try to find some kind of interesting background to put him in, and some sort of interesting thing to have him doing. That's the way those came about. There are different ways at arriving at what's going to be on a cover, there's nothing set about it.

* Continued tomorrow

* The text above is copyright 1988 & 2013 by Gary Lovisi and originally appeared in Paperback Parade #7 (Gryphon Books)

Gary's website: www.gryphonbooks.com

* Thanks to UK Vintage for the use of his Mitchell Hooks paperback cover scans in today's post.

Sandy Kossin: "... I found out some time ago that I'm not infallible."

noreply@blogger.com (Leif Peng) — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 13:43:00 +0000

Concluding Herbert Rogoff's 1969 interview from American Artist magazine...

HR: Commercial artists have to develop tricks for the purpose of saving time, and also for meeting the problems of reproduction. What are some of yours?

SK: Well, my biggest problem had always been trying to save my drawing or painting after I found I didn't like the way it was going. In washing it out, I lost not only today's painting, but yesterday's and last week's as well.

SK: I've overcome this by using a crystal clear spray to isolate my drawing. I start my picture by projecting my sketch onto my illustration board and then using pen and ink to draw it in. After my drawing is finished I spray it.

SK: I'm not restricted to India ink, mind you, I can also use water-based materials such as the felt tipped watercolors. In this way I can do drawings in colour without any real problem.

SK: Once having sprayed the surface, the next problem is trying to paint over that glazed surface. To start this I use a polymer matte medium, diluted with half water, which I brush over the area.

This is a very thin coat because I don't want to build it up to the extent that I find it beginning to peel away. Once the matte medium is on, I have a surface on which to paint in gouache.

SK: Then if I'm not satisfied - if the gouache painting comes out wrong - my escape hatch is a sponge and water to wash it off the isolated drawing. This is why I don't use the polymere colors - I'd never be able to wash them off. Although my painting is no longer in existence, my drawing, isolated under coats of plastic, is completely intact - I haven't lost it at all.

SK: Once I'm satisfied with my painting, I spray over this stage. Again, I've got to go through the process of using the matte medium, but it permits me to come back to this second stage if I'm in trouble.

SK: Not only is this a safety measure for me, but I can see the doors open as far as technique is concerned.

SK: It's very important for me to have complete control...

... because I found out some time ago that I'm not infallible.

* Thanks to Flickr members Boy de Haas and Ondiraiduveau, who both provided some of today's scans.

Sandy Kossin on Movie Poster Design: "My job [is] to fill the space in a clever fashion"

noreply@blogger.com (Leif Peng) — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 13:46:00 +0000

Continuing Herbert Rogoff's 1969 interview with Sanford Kossin from American Artist magazine...

HR: In the Beckett illustration you created some time ago, what materials were you supplied with, and what were your instructions?

SK: Well, this happened to be a very happy circumstance. Paramount Pictures is very lenient, and they're open to new ideas. Consequently, all I was given by the art director was a rough, black-and-white sketch that had been approved. It consisted of the two main figures and an indication of the montage.

SK: But in doing a movie poster like this you run into other problems, like billing, where one head must not be larger than the other. Their contracts, I guess, stipulate that both heads must be of equal size, and one must not be higher than the other. Now, if one is definitely the star, he will get his billing. In this case we had Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole, and I believe that Burton in that illustration may be the same size, but I think he's just a bit higher on the page. It probably meant he got top billing.

HR: Then movie posters, in a sense, dictate your composition?

SK: This is what I call my limitations. In the Beckett I presented two large figures of the stars, and around them, in a montage, I depicted provocative scenes from the motion picture.

SK: My job was to fill the space in a clever fashion. I received from the movie people many stills that were taken by the photographers on the set. There may be as many as two to five hundred. It takes me a full day to go through them, at which time I may select one hundred or more that I feel will fit into this composition. Another long editing session on my part helps me to select those I feel will be useful to me.

HR: Are these prints in colour?

SK: No, all are in black-and-white.

HR: How do you determine the coloration? Does the art director help?

SK: No, in most cases he leaves that up to my own tastes. In this case, I used purple and blue predominantly, with warm colors running through it, because of the obviously royal subject matter. The hot reds and oranges give a feeling, I hope, of the life and adventure that was basic to this movie.

HR: Sandy, what are those strips of illustration board behind your drawing table? The ones with the color swatches and varieties of textures?

SK: I use them constantly to check relativity of color. Here is a brilliant intense red that goes brown when I place this fluorescent orange next to it.

SK: I'd rather rather have it show up here than on my painting. That could be painful.

SK: The textures are experiments with modeling paste to see how much impasto I can use without cracking the surface.

HR: Tell me, do you police the area as you go along or do you save all those little corrections for the end for a general housecleaning?

SK: If there's something in my picture that I don't like, I correct it right then and there because each step dictates the next step in a painting. That's why it's so advisable for me not to work on one area and complete it before going on to another. You change and you readjust and it's really a juggling job.

SK: I guess by policing you mean the little nicks, slips of the brush or pen. Sure, I correct those too as I move along. Some of them I leave in, because some accidents make for variety.

* Concluded tomorrow

* Many thanks to Heritage Auctions for allowing me to make use of scans from their image archives in today's post.

Sandy Kossin on his Bay of Pigs series: "Life magazine has resources... no one else can match."

noreply@blogger.com (Leif Peng) — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 14:11:00 +0000

Part 2 of Herbert Rogoff's 1969 interview with Sanford Kossin from American Artist magazine...

HR: In 1963, I believe, you did the illustrations for the Bay of Pigs story in Life magazine. How did you go about doing that job? What research was involved?

SK: Happily, that job was for Life magazine, and Life has resources that probably no one else can match. They have a picture file second to none. I worked with a Cuban who was an explosives expert and had been part of the invasion. But prior to that, I met many times with the editors and art directors to iron out the mechanical problems: what to show and how many drawings to show it.

SK: So when we finally decided on the nineteen spreads, we knew pretty well what each picture would depict. After that, it was a matter of making sketches that were appropriate for the page. My compositions were based on the pictures that preceded them. It was one step at a time. The opening spread dictated the next step, and so on.

SK: Finally, I had to pose models in the attitudes that were necessary for each picture.

SK: Research for the technical elements, the guns, the tanks, the airplanes...

... and even the terrain on which the battle was fought...

... was provided by the magazine. It then became a matter of creating the types,

the people in their roles,

... and trying to recreate the atmosphere of the battle.

* Continued tomorrow

* Thanks to Tom Watson for providing many of today's scans.

Sandy Kossin: "... the composition to me is a most important factor in telling the story."

noreply@blogger.com (Leif Peng) — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 16:39:00 +0000

Herbert Rogoff interviewed Sandy Kossin for an article in the May 1969 issue of American Artist magazine. This week I'll present that interview along with examples of Sandy Kossin's work, both from the article and from my Flickr archives. ~ Leif Peng

HR: Sandy, how do you go about starting an illustration?

SK: I have it fairly clear in my mind what has to be done for the picture, and then it's time to come to the board. With a graphite pencil, usually a 2B lead, on a 14 X 17 tracing pad, I begin to make situations that are both pleasing and at the same time tell the story. This, of course, is based on the thinking that I went through previously.

SK: The graphite is something I use when I'm doing a humorous type of drawing. I've found that charcoal - a stick of vine charcoal or some of the compressed charcoal - is a good medium for me to use when I don't want to get bogged down in detail. But I'm more concerned with putting in the composition; and the composition to me is a most important factor in telling the story.

SK: If it hasn't been pinned down previously by the art director, I find that with this lack of limitation I'm capable of thinking out and considering the problem, and arriving at a composition that will tell the story best.

SK: That's it in a nutshell - the composition should not be considered as a clever shape, but as something that should be the method of telling the story.

HR: I see on your board a rough sketch for a humorous illustration. I can understand your doing this from memory. When you have to do a serious illustration, when do you decide to call the models in?

SK: There are times when I have a fairly complete idea in my mind of what the picture calls for, and I may even hire models for my "roughs" and take photographs, because the lighting is important, and there are things that the models give me that I might never have thought of.

SK: If it's a situation in which I have to do some thinking and get an idea on paper, then I have to draw it first, get it approved, and then photograph my models to suit my original conception.

HR: In the past few weeks I've talked to people who know you and your work, and they all spoke glowingly of your great sense of composition, Where did you learn it?

SK: I think it probably started originally with a study of the old masters - Rembrandt up into the Impressionists, especially Degas and Lautrec. But I think that eventually, in looking even at the things once studied, you see them in a new light because of a professional attitude.

SK: It's a matter of having done it for so long. It's like a musician playing the same composition over and over again; he finally understands it so well that he begins to make his own variations. And this, I feel, is essentially what all artists go through.

SK: We begin to edit our thinking, and we realize that all the formulas we learned, when we were very young and in art school, were not really formulas, but just places from which we could take off - to use as a basis for structure.

SK: It's like foundation stones for a building. The buildings that are now being constructed are quite foreign in relationship to the architecture of a hundred years ago, but they still have foundations, and they still have to have the same structural integrity that those designed many years ago had.

SK: I pay a lot of attention to the movement within the picture. This is different from an advertising layout, or a decorative composition where the elements are static and superficial; they're pleasant in terms of shape-making.

SK: I'm more concerned with what I call a traffic pattern within the picture itself - things move in, and out, and around.

* Continued tomorrow