Henry Patrick Raleigh- Serious Drawing Skills

Just in time for Christmas, Auad Publishing has unveiled a new book that would make Jay Gatsby drool. In keeping with the long tradition of fantastic books from Manuel Auad, comes Henry Patrick Raleigh-The Confident Illustrator.

  

This coffee table worthy volume is printed in glorious full color despite the fact that much of Raleigh's work was black and white or limited in it's color range. The extra touch of full color throughout lends nuance and depth to each of Raleigh's monochromatic pieces.

But the star here is Raleigh's unbelievable skill as a draftsman and storyteller. And boy could this guy draw! His characters pop to life with just enough stylization to be animated without dropping into the caricature zone. His confident line and deft use of value pattern makes each illustration in the volume study worthy. No detail is overlooked from the costumes to the furniture to the automobiles. Raliegh's art is a master class in telling just enough and telling it with flair. Lines jump off the page and exude confidence. No wonder he earned the nickname "The Confident Illustrator".

The text of the book is nicely written by Raleigh's own grandson Christopher and reading it, you get a wonderful glimpse into an era when illustrators were rock stars and paid accordingly. Raleigh reportedly was paid $200-$300 per quick spot drawing and as much as $3500 per color piece throughout the 1920's and 1930's. It is estimated that he produced some 20,000 works, or an average of around 800 illustrations per year over the first 25 years of his career. He worked quickly, sometimes spending under an hour on a spot drawing or possibly a few days on a larger piece which facilitated the completion of so many works.

If you do the math, 800 illustrations in 1930, even at an average of just $300, calculates to nearly $3.5 million in today's dollars. Raleigh was a wealthy man and his spending habits bore this out. He loved rubbing elbows with the rich and famous where he arrived at lavish parties in custom tailored suits while driving expensive cars. Despite his incredibly prolific output of work, Raliegh often traveled abroad for upwards of three to four months of the year, making his productivity even more amazing.

The book is divided into sections like The Gatsby Era, Advertising (He did Maxwell House coffee ads for years), Lithographs and Etchings (featuring the famous posters Raleigh did for World War I war bonds)The Authors (including illustrations he created for serialized stories from such notables as F. Scott Fitzgerald and H.G. Wells).

This hardback book with full  color dust jacket (featuring an alternate image) is beautifully reproduced. I would rank the print quality right up there with any high caliber art book in my collection. Also included are a couple of nicely done gatefold reproductions and a nice 9"x12" full color print is tucked into the flyleaf.

If you are an illustration junkie like me, this volume is a must have for your library. Auad Publishing's titles nearly all sell out and past titles can be hard to find and expensive. His previous books on Robert Fawcett and Albert Dorne are sold out and online prices for those tomes are now way out of my price range. I'm happy to own them already. If you are thinking about getting this new one, I suggest not waiting around too long.

Buy Henry Patrick Raleigh here
and also:
Al Parker is momentarily on sale from Auad for a ridiculous price of $20

Al Parker: Illustrator-Innovator

Al Parker: Illustrator-Innovator is the gorgeous new book from Manuel Auad of Auad Publishing. This volume follows up the similarly beautiful treatment given to Albert Dorne and Robert Fawcett. I have been wanting to give this book a proper overview since it arrived in the mail and now is the time.

Those unfamiliar with the career and work of Al Parker will be pleased and surprised at the breadth and depth of Parker's work. I knew that he was a consummate experimenter, but this volume truly shows his reach and the incredible range he was able to exhibit in a career spanning five decades. Parker was a chameleon. Always searching for the latest look that would fuel his own aesthetic hunger and yet be something fresh and appealing to the public audiences he served.

Al Parker (1906-1985), is perhaps the most influential illustrator of the twentieth century which is no small claim given the incredible breadth of talent that has plied the trade since Howard Pyle began teaching N.C Wyeth and others in the Brandywine valley of Pennsylvania in the early 1900's. Parker's early career was spent filling the glamour and women's magazines of the 1930's with idealized pictures of beautiful women. His work was often featured in the most popular publications of the day such as Ladie's' Home Journal, Good Housekeeping and McCall's He is often credited with establishing the modern glamour aesthetic.

In the 1939 he began a string of covers for Ladies Home Journal that featured a mother and daughter pair engaging in various activities such as skating, sledding, raking or even changing a car tire. This series became so popular that it continued until 1952. As demand for his work increased, Parker became one of the most respected and famous illustrators in the country.

That fan following even extended to the most famous illustrator of the day, Norman Rockwell, who sent a letter to the younger Parker which read in part:

"It is simply extraordinary, your amazing creativeness, taste and versatility. While the rest of us are working knee-deep in a groove, you are forever changing and improving. You have brought more freshness, charm and vitality to illustration than any living illustrator"

Despite his success and popularity, Parker was never one to sit on his laurels. Regarding his own penchant for trying new things, he once remarked:

"I think one of the things I like most about illustration is the fact that things are always changing. It's always tomorrow."

Parker even once illustrated an entire issue of Cosmopolitan magazine, choosing a fake name and a different style for each piece of artwork he created for each story.

As evidenced by the following series of pictures, it is clear that Parker never shied away from trying new things.

Another aspect of the book I really enjoyed were the sections that included reference photos used by Parker with the accompanying finished illustrations, an interview with Parker reproduced from 22 Famous Painters and Illustrators Tell How They Work, and a short essay of remembrances by Parker's niece Margaret Matchin.

Although I was familiar with Al Parker from my studies of illustration history and an exhibit of his work at the Norman Rockwell museum, this volume brings into sharp focus the true depth of Parker's work as well as his impact on illustration and the public aesthetic. I highly recommend this volume to any fan of illustration, art or pop culture. It is well worth the cover price.

You can buy the book at Auad Publishing's site

Albert Dorne - Master Illustrator

Albert Dorne Master Illustrator is fresh off the presses from Auad Publishing and just in time to make it onto your Christmas list. I got my copy a few days ago and have been enjoying it ever since. The book is full of Dorne illustrations that I had never seen before as well as many classic pictures that I was familiar with.

Editor Manuel Auad and writer David Apatoff have done a bang up job here in presenting Dorne and his exquisitely drawn work to a new generation. It has been said that Dorne was the Jack Kirby of his day and with his expressive characters and knobby knuckled hands it is easy to see why.

I love the format of the book and the fine quality of the printing. Other nice elements include interviews from Dorne taken from period sources such as Famous Artists Magazine and Pageant. There is even a graphic tribute to Dorne drawn by the great Jack Kirby himself.

Albert Dorne (1906-1965) was a self taught artist who worked his way to fame and riches through sheer determination and hard work. He described a childhood in which he would skip school to draw from the sculptures and paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, claiming to be the youngest artist ever granted a sketch permit from that revered establishment.

Dorne worked at a studio for no pay for an entire year sleeping just a few hours and holding down a night job in order to get his foot in the door of the industry. He went on to found the Famous Artist School correspondence course which influenced countless artists.

It is obvious that Dorne had a gift and flair for drawing people but what surprised me was the range of expression and stylization that he achieved over his four decade career. He was at ease in any approach to the figure from total exaggeration to fairly straight forward depictions.

He was a master of the complex multi figure composition and could manage dozens of figures in a scene and yet let them all add to the overall effect with an appropriate hierarchy of importance.

As with the previous volume on Robert Fawcett, This book also has several vignette pages that focus on Dorne's skill in depicting hands, characters, attention to detail and complex picture architecture. This book is a feast for anyone who enjoys vintage illustration or simply likes to look at great drawing. Gotta go now, Albert Dorne is calling, and I have to figure out how to draw better.

Get your copy of Albert Dorne Master Illustrator

Robert Fawcett on Drawing

Defeat and Death on Battan by Robert Fawcett

When asked in a 1960 Famous Artist Magazine interview how important drawing was to the total result of a picture, Robert Fawcett replied with the following quote:

Drawing constitutes the fountainhead and substance of painting and sculpture and architecture...Let him who has attained the possession of this be assured that he possesses a great treasure.
-Michelangelo

After my last post, I realized there was much more to share from the book Robert Fawcett- The Illustrator's Illustrator (which I highly recommend by the way).  I figured I'd post a little more today. The following is a breakdown of Fawcett's drawing style and mark making along with a few quotes from the above noted interview.

Q:What is the use of a picture anyway?

A: What use is a Beethoven symphony? To feed the spirit, to feed the soul.

Q: Do you believe artists should be trained?

A: They must pursue constant and relentless drawing. Being able to draw only comes about by drawing. Of course training will give the artist hints. But in the last analysis, the artist develops himself.

Q: Must an artist have talent?

A: I do not think that artists are naturally born...Sweat and application will develop the artist. An artist who wants badly enough to do it will do it anyway. It will be impossible to dissuade him. If students want to be spoon fed, this is not likely to be a real desire on their part to be artists, but merely a whim.

Q: What do you hope to communicate to those who see your work?

A: I would like them so see a sense of positive organization in my picture. If you see a picture that is well organized you have no trouble looking at it. This is the logical outcome of drawing. Drawing is seeing. And what we do is create a kind of order in a picture that makes it easy for people to look at.

On the art of seeing:

I'm just a built in eye. I can see with such clarity. But the hand always falters between the eye and the paper. ...You can learn to see by seeing....If I have a trained eye, I will record a more comprehensive picture because I know how to translate what I see. there should be the least amount of interference between the eye, the brain and the hand. When you have exhausted conventional seeing, you can go into more interesting things.

Q: What is the best advice you can give an aspiring illustrator?

A: If you want to be an artist, you will be an artist. If you do not become one, there is nobody to blame but yourself. The techniques can be learned and should be learned thoroughly. Then comes the relentless application of your knowledge.

Many thanks to Manuel Auad of Auad Publishing for his gracious permission to share these pictures and excerpts.