Ed Eyestone For BYU Magazine

I finished these three pieces up a few weeks back for BYU Magazine to accompany an article by All American and Olympic runner Ed Eyestone.

First concept for opener

Eyestone shares several life lesson anecdotes in the article including the time when he gave his last ounce of energy during a race and collapsed short of the finish line.  His coach told him that he had "run like a horse" meaning that a horse will run until it collapses and never gives up simply because the task is too hard.

Final Drawing

A mule on the other hand, will simply stop and refuse to continue on when it tires, despite prodding. He had pushed himself until he dropped and that made his coach proud. This experience was the inspiration for the opening spread.

Another spot dealt with Eyestone's interaction with the team trainer when as a freshman, he wanted the same post workout massage as the senior runners. The Finnish trainer said "you don't waste the black powder on the small birds" but then relented and treated him the same as the rest of the team. This experience taught him that everyone is important.

The final spot dealt with how small things can help you reach your goals. Kyle perry had set the goal to run a sub four minute mile and then concentrated on all the small things that would help him reach his goal, including a strict training regimen and diet and focusing on a list of ten small things he would do every day as he trained. He dropped from a 4:05 to a 3:59.16. Concentrating on the small things had helped Perry reach his goal.

All pieces were drawn first in graphite and then scanned and painted in Photoshop. Handmade crackle texture was added at the end.

Knockout Punch

Knockout Punch- Graphite and digital by Greg Newbold

Here's the final piece in the project for BYU magazine. This one depicts Willard Bean who was an undersized but scrappy boxer in his younger days. His faith as well as his skill in the ring earned him the nickname "The Fightin' Parson" since it was said that he could preach as well as he could fight.  Bean even coached future heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey. In later years, he was called by Mormon church leaders to re-establish a church presence in Palmyra, New York where LDS church prophet Joseph Smith grew up. Chilly relations with the locals led Willard to dust off the boxing gloves for an exhibition in which he challenged any takers to a round in the ring. The "whip a Mormon" event broke the ice with locals even though he beat all comers. He was eventually influential in the helping the church acquire several historic properties including the Hill Cumorah.

Amanda Barnes Smith

Amanda Barnes Smith Takes Back Her Horse- by Greg Newbold

Amanda Barnes Smith lost her husband, and second son at the hands of violent mobsters during the Haun's Mill Massacre, one of the most violent acts of persecution in Mormon church history. During the raid, the hip of one of her six year old twin son's was also blown away by a gunshot. In the midst of this crisis, having lost everything and being forced from the state of Missouri by the mob, Smith found the mob leader's home. You see, he had stolen Amanda Smith's horse and she wanted it back. Banging on the door, she resolutely demanded back her property. The mobster told her she must pay for his having fed the animal. She declined, since he had already stolen all she had. "It's my horse. I need it. I'll take it now."  she said and calmly retrieved it from the stable. Smith reportedly used her apron as a lead rope as she took the horse. I imagined the strength and determination of this woman as she faced down the man who had participated in the deaths of her son and husband and tried to portray this feeling in her gesture and in the lighting and color of the piece. Even though night is falling, she is still illuminated from a heavenly source. This is another piece from the BYU Magazine article I am finishing up. This one is graphite and digital, painted in Photoshop.

Orrin Porter Rockwell

Fishing For Pukes- Graphite, digital by Greg Newbold

Orrin Porter Rockwell was among the most colorful characters in early Mormon history. Rockwell never fit the mold of other straight laced church goers right down to his beard and hair. He never cut it after LDS prophet Joseph Smith delivered a Samson-like exhortation that if he did not cut it, "neither bullet nor blade" would take his life. Later he did donate his hair to make a wig for a woman who had lost her hair to typhoid fever. He also gained the nickname "The Destroying Angel" as well as a reputation for being quick on the trigger after being acquitted of attempted murder. This illustration depicts a time when Porter was held in a Missouri prison for nine months without being charged. To amuse himself and the children outside the cell window, he would dangle some of his food, which consisted of barely edible lumps of cornbread called "corn dodgers", out the window. When asked what he was doing, he told the children he was "fishing for pukes" which was the unflattering nickname many from Illinois bestowed on Missourians at the time. This entertained the youngsters who would bring him more food since the state was not legally responsible to feed it's prisoners (go figure). Rockwell became a lawman in the Utah territory and he was either loved or hated depending upon which side of the law you happened to fall. This is another illustration for an BYU magazine article.

More on Porter Rockwell in this book

Adjusting the Color

Martha Hughes Cannon- Graphite, digital by Greg Newbold

Samuel P. Cowley- Graphite, digital by Greg Newbold

J. Golden Kimball- Graphite, digital by Greg Newbold

After a little contemplation, I decided that the background color on these portraits was competing a little too much with the skin tones. I adjusted the color by dropping the saturation and shifting the hue slightly on all three. I like them better and thing that this subtle shift lets the faces command more attention. Sometimes I think I have the tendency (as I am sure a lot of artists do) to overdo the color saturation when what is really needed is a more subdued touch. In this case, I think this shift makes for better images. Plus, I sort of like the feeling I get of hand tinted photos (scratches and all) which was really the goal all along.

See the previous versions here

Portrait Drawings Finished

Martha Hughes Cannon- by Greg Newbold
graphite and digital

Samuel P. Cowley

J. Golden Kimball

I showed the drawings for these spot art pieces earlier so I thought I'd show how they turned out. I had the option of just leaving these as black and white art, but decided to add some limited color and texture. I think they turned out pretty well and should fit in well with the other color pierces in this series. I'm still considering whether to desaturate the backgrounds behind the heads a little. These were all rendered in Photoshop.

Rough Trail

Jane Manning James was a Mormon Pioneer and also one of the first black members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. As part of the article I am illustrating for BYU Magazine, I am illustrating little known stories from the lives of church members. The story is told of how Jane travelled several hundred miles of the journey with inadequate footwear. In an autobiographical sketch she wrote,

“We walked until our shoes were worn out, and our feet became sore and cracked open and bled until you could see the whole print of our feet with blood on the ground. We stopped and united in prayer to the Lord, we asked God the Eternal Father to heal our feet and our prayers were answered and our feet were healed forthwith.”

For this illustration I wanted to portray the hardship but also inject hope. The sage sparrow represents the Bible verse which teaches that not a sparrow shall fall without our Father knowing. (Matthew 10:29). Hopefully I struck the right balance of strength and faith here.

Portrait Drawings

Samuel P. Cowley- Graphite 4" x 5"  by Greg Newbold

Martha Hughes Cannon- Graphite 4" x 5"  by Greg Newbold

J. Golden Kimball- Graphite 4" x 5" by Greg Newbold

These drawings are part of a project I am doing for BYU Magazine. I'll show progress of the other illustrations as they progress. I will be bringing in some limited color to these and add some texture in Photoshop as well, but I like the organic quality of the drawings and will try to preserve it as I move along.