Louise Wright Paints a Fashion Illo

It's rare to see step-by-step sequences for illustrations done over a century ago. 

British illustrator Louise Wright (born 1863) creates a fashion plate with two female figures, and the process was captured by Percy Bradshaw in a book called The Art of the Illustrator. 

Stage 1: "The figures are lightly touched in with pencil on Roberson’s Fashion Board, B surface (extra smooth), the board measuring 14 inches wide by 21 inches high. The design of the costumes is original, and was suggested by certain characteristic details which were in fashion at the time when Miss Wright commenced the drawing."

Stage 2: "Brush work is commenced, Lamp Black and Sables of various sizes from No. 0 to No. 5 being used. Faint washes of tone are introduced into the face seen in profile, for instance around the eyes, nose and chin, while in the other face light washes can be seen across the forehead, down the nose, mouth and shadow side of the face, beneath the chin, and on the neck of the front view."

Stage 3: "The modeling of the faces is carried considerably further, by stippling up the light tones previously introduced. Dead white is still left over the major portion of the heads, but the strengthening of tone which would be noted in the reproduction is accomplished by a delicate cross-hatching with the point of the brush used comparatively dry. This cross-hatching needs very dexterous manipulation, and wherever it is possible to obtain the effect by fresh washes it is preferable."

Stage 4: "The artist has been chiefly concerned here with the strengthening of tone all over the outdoor costume, while the Evening dress is taken a stage further by the introduction of some fresh, simple washes. It was noticed, in working upon the outdoor costume, that the drawing of the left hip created a somewhat ugly line, and the outline has consequently been reduced or flattened here by the introduction of a little Chinese White. A flat light wash has been taken all over the cloth portion of the dress, the folds at the left arm and the outline of the bust have been more definitely shaded, and the sash in the centre very considerably increased in color."

Stage 5: "The drapery of the sleeve has also been emphasized by outlining each of the shadows with this opaque white, a wash has been carried over the edge of the sleeve to form a frill, and further broad touches of white added to give transparency to the material. A bunch of flowers has been broadly indicated, chiefly with a wash of tone, the petals of the white rose being indicated with the opaque white, the dark flower with a wash of half tone, the shadows being filled in with black. The high lights on the waist-band have also been emphasized with the Blanc d’Argent and the outline of the band defined in the same way."

Stage 6: "The hair has been slightly strengthened in color, the outline of the face altered by introducing a slightly fuller chin, and rather more prominence and fullness in the lips, which formerly suggested a rather simpering mouth. These alterations have been made with Chinese White. The eye and eyebrow have been introduced more heavily, the lips strengthened in color, the line at the back of the neck more definitely drawn."

Wikipedia on Louise Wright

On Archive.org: Percy Bradshaw "The Art of the Illustrator"

African Warrior Fantasy

Imaro II: The Quest for Cush is a fantasy novel written by Charles Saunders, an expert in African folklore. I wanted Imaro to be a convincing warrior hero, so I located a tall, built model named Darrell, who was in training to play for the L.A. Lakers. That’s Mount Kenya in the distance.

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Imaro II: The Quest for Cush on Amazon

Biopunk Truck

I painted this image for Thomas Easton’s science-fiction story “Down on the Truck Farm” (1990). 

In this biopunk future, living vehicles are genetically engineered out of the organic parts of animals:

"The genimal's legs were mounted high, above the wheels, their joints reversed; as they ran, they pushed against the tires, spun the wheels on their bony hubs, and propelled the vehicle down the grassy greenways that had replaced paved roads early in the Biological Revolutions."

To paint the setting of giant marigolds and pumpkin plants, I set up my easel outside in the garden.

Heath Robinson Exhibition Coming to Delaware

The Fairy’s Birthday, 1925, published in
Holly Leaves, December, 1925. W. Heath Robinson
(1872–1944). Pen, ink, and watercolor,
17 1/2 × 12 3/8 in. (44.5 × 31.5 cm). The William Heath Robinson Trust.

An exhibition of the artwork of W. Heath Robinson will open March 4 at the Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington. The show is called "Wonder and Whimsy: The Illustrations of W. Heath Robinson." 

Shepherd’s Hill, Highgate by W. Heath Robinson
(1872–1944). Pen and watercolor, 29 1/8 x 20 1/16 inches
The William Heath Robinson Trust.

According to the museum:

"While little known today, during his lifetime W. Heath Robinson (1872 -1944) was ranked with Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac as one of England’s foremost illustrators. Beginning in the 1890s Robinson developed a linear style that looks back to the innovations of the Pre-Raphaelite illustrators and forward to the art nouveau creations of Aubrey Beardsley and others. He illustrated a broad range of texts, including William Shakespeare, Rudyard Kipling, and the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen, in addition to children’s books he wrote himself. He is best remembered today for his humorous depictions of Rube Goldberg-like contraptions and gentle satires of contemporary life."

The show will be up through May 21, 2017.

Wonder and Whimsy: The Illustrations of W. Heath Robinson.

Painting the Ideal Robin

Roger Tory Peterson wrote and illustrated one of the definitive bird identification books called Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America

The goal of the pictures in a field handbook is to present the essential type, the Platonic ideal of the species in question. His son Lee Allen Peterson says that his father's rendering of a robin:

"was not  just any old robin, but the perfect robin. Somehow, he was able to convey a bird not at a specific moment in time, awkwardly posed with feathers in disarray, but rather, as the mind saw it, the robin idealized, with feathers neatly patterned and plump." 

American Robin by Roger Tory Peterson from
Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America

In order for the art to include the characteristic and diagnostic features, the artist must be more than a convincing realist painter. He or she must possess a large body of knowledge and experience, accessible from memory, from which to screen out any accidental or non-essential detail.

American Robin, photo courtesy Wikipedia

Lee Allen Peterson continues:

"His results were all the more remarkable when one watched how they were achieved. He worked mostly from memory, using only a dry, beat-up specimen of the bird for details of anatomy and occasionally a photograph or two. And he was able to piece together an image of the bird as it should have been. Not just any robin, but all robins."

Book: Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America

New Illustration History Website

Last weekend the Norman Rockwell Museum introduced a new illustration history website, which provides an rich resource for fans, collectors, and scholars.

The website includes capsule summaries of each period of illustration, starting in the Paleolithic, and going all the way through the 20th century decade by decade. 

Some of the major names in illustration are featured with bios and sample images. There's also a growing collection of essays which will be written by museum staff and scholars of illustration around the world. The list of resources includes blogs, recommended books, college study programs, and interview videos.

For example, in this 2004, video, (Link to video) Illustration historian Walt Reed (1917-2015) talks about how he got started as an educator for the Famous Artists School, how he got to know Norman Rockwell, and how that led him to opening the Illustration House gallery. 

The scope of the website encompasses genres such as editiorial illustration, comics, cartooning, storyboarding, tattooing, and architectural illustration.

The focus is primarily on American illustrators, and there are a lot of important names that are inadvertently left out (please mention 'em in the comments!). And they have overlooked many genres of illustration, such as natural history, medical, paleoart, concept art, pin-up, imaginative realism, reportorial, editorial, and paperback covers. But I trust they'll fix these gaps—they're just starting out, and they're open to feedback. 

(Link to video) The Rockwell Museum has a lot of other videos and audio interviews in their collection that they're happily beginning to release, such as this video where Mr. Rockwell talks about how he found "plain, everyday people" from his small New England surroundings to stand in for people of all religions in his painting "The Golden Rule."

N.R.M.'s new Illustration History website

Previously on GJ: Why is There No Illustration Textbook?

Classic Art Instruction: The Crowd-sourced List

A week or two ago, I shared a list of my favorite classic art instruction books from Dover Publishing. In the comments, I invited you to suggest the classic art instruction books (more than 50 years old) that you thought were particularly helpful. Here's the list you suggested below. The links take you to Amazon pages where you can read more about each title. On the left is a poll. Please vote for your favorite books. You can vote for more than one. An Atlas of Animal Anatomy for Artists by W. Ellenberger et al.  Animation by Preston Blair   Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist by Peck  Bridgman’s Life Drawing by George Bridgman  Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting by John F. Carlson  Composition of Outdoor Painting by Edgar Payne Constructive Anatomy by George Bridgman   Creative Illustration by Andrew Loomis   Creative Perspective for Artists and Illustrators by Ernest Watson   Drawn to Life by Walt Stanchfield Dynamic Anatomy by Burne Hogarth  Famous Artist’s Course by various authors Figure Drawing for All It’s Worth by Andrew Loomis  Fun With a Pencil by Andrew Loomis Hawthorne on Painting by Charles Hawthorne Hensche on Painting by John Robichaux How I Make a Picture by Norman Rockwell Keys to Drawing by Bert Dodson  Light and Shade by Mrs. Mary P. Merrifield Modelling and Sculpting the Human Figure by Edouard Lanteri   Oil Painting Techniques and Materials by Harold Speed   On Drawing Trees and Nature: A Classic Victorian Manual (Dover Art Instruction) On the Art of Drawing by Robert Fawcett Pencil Drawing by Ernest Watson Pencil Pictures by Theodore Kautzky Perspective by Rex Vicat Cole Perspective Made Easy by Ernest Norling Pictorial Composition by Henry Poore Rendering in Pen and Ink by Arthur L. Guptill Successful Drawing by Andrew Loomis   The Art of Animal Drawing by Ken Hultgren The Artistic Anatomy of Trees by Rex Vicat Cole The Classic Point of View by Kenyon Cox The Human Figure by John Vanderpoel The Natural Way to Draw by Kimon Nicolaides The Painter in Oil by Daniel Parkhurst The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed The Practice of Tempera Painting by Daniel Thompson Twilight of Painting by R. Ives Gammell