Idea Sketch

I like to draw. As a teacher / professor of illustration at an Art & Design college, I am interested in giving students an effective, and simple approach to creating an illustration. I am attempting to find a way around the anxiety of "building" an illustration, while understanding the importance of creating a "finished" image.  My strategy is to "grow" the image.



We learn to draw at school by practicing observational drawing.  We draw from the human figure.  Other than the art model, no reference necessary.  But that is not the case in many illustration assignments. So, beyond drawing, I tell the students to find, or create good reference. Also, we read and scrutinize short stories by authors such as John Cheever, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Flannery O'Connor.  We also exchange ideas about narrative composition and abstract design.



Here is an illustration I recently painted for Forbes magazine.  It was a story about the abduction, or kidnapping of wealthy businessmen around the world.



I used FW acrylic inks, on BFK Rives printmaking paper.  The inks are permanent, so I can work dark to light.  And unlike watercolor paper, BFK Rives does not need to be stretched.



I've included the initial "idea" sketch. Here, the only reference is the actual businessman's face. Everything else is from my imagination. The second image is a photo comp.  This is how I create my reference. I gather disparate images from the usual on-line sources, my own scrap file, or photographs I shoot using myself, or my neighbors as models. The next image is a "value" sketch, drawn from the photo comp that attempts to coalesce the various pieces of reference into one synthesized picture.



After that, there are 5 images.  I scanned the finished illustration at 5 arbitrary stages, attempting to show how the illustration grows on the page.  There are no pencil lines that precede the brush lines. I did measure once or twice, using the "face" of the abducted, as a standard unit of measurement. This was necessary to address the pre-set proportions of the composition.



Finally, I hope this attempt at clarity does not come off as condescending.  I realize that each of us creates work in our own unique, and idiosyncratic way.  That "is" the point. What I like to emphasize with my students is this; drawing the figure, drawing on location, or drawing an illustration for a magazine can be very similar as a drawing experience, and very exciting in a highly focused kind of way.

 

Jennifer in Old Town, Pasadena

Sketchbook Drawings.



John Cheever could not have written the 548 unless he knew mid-town Manhattan,

was familiar with Grand Central Station, had ridden trains on the Hudson River line, knew the sumptuary laws of people in the Northeastern United States, the particular habits of commuters riding trains in that part of the country, and had read the bible.  In other words, he had to “see” it to “write” it, and then some.

An illustrator who attempts to make pictures that describe scenes from a story has roughly the same problem.  Doubly difficult is the fact that the illustrator is often asked to illustrate something that someone else wrote, about something that he might not have seen, and against a deadline that would make young girls cry and young men faint! The room starts spinning when you add to this the life long pursuit of pictorial ideas, abstract design, drawing concepts and painting technique necessary for distinctive illustration. Ah, the good life!

The greatest “modus operandi” a narrative illustrator has, and the measure of his/her mojo, is drawing.  Drawing is the ability to record life on a visceral level.  I learned to appreciate this point of view as a young illustrator in New York.  But that’s another story.

The point of this post is to offer up a series of sketchbook drawings, made from real life,

Albeit slightly “set-up.”  These drawings were created in 4 hours, and each drawing is approximately 10”W X 14”H.  I drew these drawings while teaching at the Art Center College of Design. The hope is that, through drawing, the student will become better able to see, more appreciative of the human condition, and more sensitive to stories, both visual and literary.  This is not illustration, not by a long shot.  There is no refinement here, nothing but naked.  This is an attempt to see life, and to organize and edit what I see, while flying by the seat of my pants.

The subject of these drawings is an art model and a Los Angeles location such as Union Station, Philippe’s Restaurant, The Farmer’s Market on Fairfax, and the Santa Monica Pier.  Many of the locations were settings for some great fiction stories, and Noir films.

There is a handful of great New York illustrators I have known and studied with, and American fiction writers, and Noir filmmakers I have never known, who are my inspiration for this idea.