How | make a picture euaes OF THE FACULTY OF Institute of Commercial Art, .. Westport, ConnectiutJon Whitcomb Working procedure a ef Comnerdal At neJon Whitcomb Working procedure Insure of Comme ae Meet Jon Whitcomb by Alden Hatch Jon Whitcomb has unique ability to combine the newest looks ‘with the oldest enchantment. His lovely ladies ae always weeks, ‘or even month, herd of the vogue, not only in clothes but in the setal trend of feminine beauty yet they areas lovable as the gel next door. This makes Whitcomb the top man in roman ti llutration and prety gel magazine covers “The briliane color, deleave drawing and freshness of Whit combs pictues give them an ffect of codes spontaneity that, paradoxically, can only be achieved by dhe hardest kind of work and complete mastery of technique They also conta that ingredient, without which no pictore is really sucesul, ‘genuine enthusiasm. For Whitcomb is pawionate devote of design. “I have no feeling for antiques and ald master," he told me frankly. "Ever since Iwas «hid, Ive hated everything ths was old and stodgy ‘What I love are the Intent, newest most expensive dings. That's why 1 put de into petures ‘Whitcomb elfers no apology for his failure to make obelsance to the gods. On the other hand, he is not belligerent sure tha laceause he ike something it must be good. He regards his tastes anan aniaing personal eccentricity, ‘That ability to Taugh at Dial! i the hey to bis character. ven though he has reached the top of his prfeaion, he relates to be pontifical about his fre He belies tht if he ever did, he would lone not only the dele touch that lenés enchanimient ois work, but his own sell respec. ‘Jon Whitcomb is rather sturdy young man with a round boyish face, curly dark hair and laughing hazel eyes, made bik Tiant by thick ashes that ae the despair of his preiest modes Hie wears cloths with the careless famboyance that is asociated ‘with the lashionable workd trom Italy’ Lido t9 Hollywood. ‘Whitcomb started lle « long wy from the eabafas of cle society. He was born in Weatherlord, Oklahoma, om June 9, 1806, The vires of art was in his blod, or his lather, Lemley Presion Whitcomb, taught mechanical driving and sa 4 om nolweur of triangles and T squares, while hit mother, Melisa Hall Whitcomb taught art clases in Michigan schools before ther marriage, Whitcomb says that his mother made only one picture, but she made it agnin and again. te wan 2 pitare of fn Indian sitting infront ofa campfze wih ate in the Dack ground, Mrs, Whitcomb painted st on canvas, trescocd ion tall, baked it onto plates and even burne it snto leather ‘ishions "The Whitcomb house was always plenilully supplied with pencil drawing paper and watercolor pains, and all dhe chil ‘en learned to draw. There ie a old photograph of Jon and bis three ster, allow than siz years old siting around the ining 100m table painting like mad: Outside wae a dusty world ‘of vast plain, alll peopled wih Indians and occasionally swept by eyelones; but Jon took litle inerest in thse exc scenes except to paint them. ‘When Jon wis sx, the Whitcombs moved to Wisconsin where they sted fist in Oshkosh and then in Manitowoc. There he ‘went to school and continued to draw ic was as instinctive as Treathing ond hie pltures appeared in the achool magazine From high school, Whitcomb went 2 Ohio Wesleyan Uni venlty In Delaware, Ohio. He majored in English composition tnd drew cartoons torte campus comic, the Ohio Westen Mivvor He ali learned to ride and play golf and cenis, but he cared lite for thee accomplishment, and it was not uni he was much older chat he became interested in sports even as 2 apertater Whitcomb needed money to put himell through college and rail his developing une for good looking clothes and modern {gadget His fre job was a & college columnist for a paper Sed bya school Iriend of his tthe’ which was unequlvoc Ally named the Detroit Saturday Night. Anosher job vas pay i the pipe organ for silent moves inthe Delaware theater. It sewt ehat the regular organist exercised his inalienable right to get drunk every Saturday night, and Whitcomb had a steady otra hia subatute forthe Ite show ‘Early Sunday morning, Jon would appear as organist im. the presbyerian Church As he dreamy let his gers wander over fe key, he occasionally forgot wich of his public was listening. His shclogial carer was abrupdy terminated when he played 4 shumba for she reeasional the sumer of hit fteshman year at college, Whitcomb ‘made his fst money fron art. Through a chain of fiends. he iota job painting posters forthe Palace Theater in Cleveland [Al dh sumoner he painted lurid scenes {rom mories on the big 40 by 0 inch poster boards ince the cheater also ran vaude- ville, Whitcomb got considerable practice depicang dag acs, jngelers and ied sage stars. Liberally sprinkled with iter, ‘ore of tnuel cut, is pictures sparkled bravely under the Toby tight Whitcanb naturally contracted a light case of stage fever, which has lased rer since, However, i could nat have been Serio, for, hough the theater manager, Joba Raya, now pro- [pram director for NBC. offered his a permanent job that fall, Jon decige to retain wo college is degree was ot obtained without wibulation In his junior year at Wesleyan, Whitcomb flunked Greek. His face was bright Tea for a younger sister, now the famous glove designer, Merry Hil, paued wail in the same cls. Since Whitcomb could notJon Whitcomb Working procedure Inltate of Commercial Arte ‘graduate from Wesleyan without a ctanial language credit, he ftansfrred to Ohio State for his senior yer "At State, Whitcomb became associated with a really talented crew on the college comic magazine, the Sun Dial Cayton Rav fon, mystery author and editor of several ntery magazines and the Detective Stary Book Club, was ts eto, and Milton Cait the celebrated cartoonist, war a contributor. Whitcomb yt that, while his own seyle of drawing has changed out of reco nition, Gavi drew then with the same incisive Line that has since made hitn famous. ‘That was in 1926, or late im the John Held, Jr era, and College Humor, which was at is apogee, picked up many Can, Rawson and Whitcomb cartoons. Whit fom and Rastion ied for fourth place in the magazine's con tet for college artis. ‘Even in his senior year, Whitcomb had not decided on art asa career He went to art das at Ohio State ~his only formal education in drawing but be sept through his art apprecia tion class thote mur old masters — and continued to major in English. Actually he never di formally decide upon a cree. He jut continued to do what came naturally and people liked dis work and bought ic ‘Whitcomb’ fat job out of college pet him inthe role of an ars, complete with smock. Ie wars stant the publicity depart ‘Bent of the Cleveland Union Trust Company dreamed up to Increate their rel busines. They Sxed Whitcomb up in what the public thinks a well drewed arUst ought to wear and put him on a platform in the owded main lobby of the ban, paint ing travel poses. Busnes in expret checks boomed, while the cuiows crowded around the handsome young man who not halantly slung colors on his big canvas, The bank kepe him fon fora second weck and a third. One day, his old employer Jobin Royal saunter in. “I just dropped by 1 catch your at Ine said Prete good. How would you like to work fords again? ‘Whitcomb debiniely prelered being an art to acting one, and accepted on the spot. He was sent to Chicago, where he Plnted posters for a chain of theaters. His masterpiece of this period was the figure of a man twenty feet high, that could be ‘rected on a theater marquee ‘After eight months, he returned to Cleveland, where he got 1 job at the Fawn Studio of Commercial Art. There he really leamed his trade, underssdying soch fine artists ax Richard Schroeder and Novman Wagner. At fet his picturer appeared ‘only on posters and billboards and in small mailorder booklet, but proently he worked up to ads inthe national magazines Uke The Post, Colliers, and Cosmopolitan ‘His next step forward was astounding, no one being more surprised than Whitcomb, He concocted a picture of wood, bit f cloth and string pasted together, and sent it to Colliers William Chessman, the art editor, bought it ara cover in what Whitcomb ail thinks wae st of aberration. ‘This lightened the gloom of depreaion and Whitcomb, who hnad been doing Goodrich Tire ady, was impited to pat his svings into their common stock about dhe Weeks belore the cqasht ‘There went his capital, He was kept reatonably busy ‘hroughout the Long dreary years, but he stuck 2 low point in Aut, 1982, when his ota earnings were $8.00. However, ‘hing picked up fast and in 198, Fava Studio sen hm to their [New York fice: Whitcomb was delighted: "I had alwaye thought [New York was the one place to lve” “The greater varity of workin the New York offce quickened his enthusiasm. In Cleveland, Whitcomb had been more or es ‘confined to local products. "For five year,” he aj," drew pic tures of women in evening cloths, looking at Goodrich tres, or 2 General Electric refrigerator or registering at 2 Statler Hotel, saying “Ah” with an expresion of delighted amazement om thar faces” Tn New York he wat able o branch out into the whole feld of advertising and he began illustrating for the national maga tines as wel Hist ilusrauve Job, in 1986, was a shor shor Story for Cole's and almost simultaneously Good Hous-hep ing gave him = chance to do two double spreads in black and red for a story by Resamund dufasdin called "Some Achieve Greatnes." Whitcomb's work caught on: in fact it st 2 new fauhion in ilustation, and he som had more obs than he could handle. The Post, Colliers, Ladie? Home Journal, Woman's Home Companion and Coamopolitan all bought is work, He begun doing about 80%, illustration wo 20%, adveresing, Though adversing is much more lucrative, Whitcomb greatly pres istration, mainly because editor give him more of a ire Ihand than the agencies, which are likey to iesist on sending in their oven layouts and sets, Howener, thi isnot always the ‘aoe, Recently Palmolive Soup ofdered a serie of pictures om Whitcomb with abolutely no stings attached, other than the facetious warning of ane executive: “Dont make them ook ike Cashmere Bouguet” "That isa very satitying sort of dea.” Whitcomb says. “It ives you scope € improvise and to work out your own dew. hope todo more work for Palmolive.” Meanwhile, Fawn Studio withdrew from New York, and Whitcomb, who isa shrewd busineiman, combined with Charles E. Cooper stleman, to take over the New York efce under the name of the Cooper Studio. Where Fawn failed Cooper ‘made tremendous success. Whitcomb still owns an interest in the company and i stil active in the managementJon Whitcomb Working procedure Insitute of Commercial Aa, hs 1988, Whitcomb paid his fst visit to Hollywood, whi he Tove at Brat sight. Ht came about berate mode or serial ‘he wa working on gota movie contact ding the chird instal: ment. Whitcomb tied another gir, but could not make her resemble his herein, 10 e followed the model to Hollywood tind Giniabed the job in an coterie boncly apy called "The Garden of Allah. The models name was Sinan Hayward ‘On June 15, 192, Jon Whitcomb war commisioned 2 Hew tenant, jg. inthe United States Navy. He spent the next six weeks in a mine sweeper off the Atlantic Coat. Sines his prev ‘ou seadopgery waa confined toa stteewfoot tall and ane fan cean eronsing on the Normandie, he was not an unqualifcd ‘cee as 4 deck ier ‘Then the Navy got smart and reaigned him wo the Public Relations Department, whete he eid some recruting pores for the Waves that made the girl chink that iL they joined the Navy they would look like a Whitcomb pieure Tn June, 1944, Whitcomb succeeded in geting assigned tothe Pacific. There he gota beliyful of action, taking part 3s a com: Sat arti, in the invasions of Tinian, Guam and Peleis. With fine cate of jungle rou, he was shipped buck to a hospital in Washington, D.C, ancl dichargel frm the service in 191. Whivcomb rewrod wo his career wih grave miagiviags, He fete that he had achieve sucess by always being ahead of the fashion and now he was three years behind it Cooper did noth ing to cheer him up. "A dozen wen are doing your sort of Stull now,” the president sid lugubriouly. “I think you'd beter ‘change your appreach” People are alvays tying to get Whitcomb to change hinsell, and the magatines try to mold him; But they never succeed. As he pu i "My style changes all the time to meet new tends, ‘but my interests are constant.” Despite ll the gloomy lorebodings, the exlieutenant was soon overwhelmed with work, All the magasines that bad ever ‘wed itm, except The Post gave bm orders, and the advertisers ‘cane lack toot semned that» genuine old Whiter wae sll newer than the newest inition. However, the artist had an ‘Spl struggle wth smell he period of teadjtanent. "War ‘estoy al Your working habit,” wold me. "You become used to being told what to do and when to do i. Being your own boss again is a shock In addition, Tel that I would never atch up wih thase lost thrce yeas. For along time I was not sais fied with my work, thovgh, luckily, other people semed to [went to ae Jon Whitcomb at Sundech, his home on 3 peak in Darien, Connecticut, He is surely coment in his tondnes ces ofan, Nats ht aanJon Whitcomb Working procedure Insitute of Commercial A Ie {for the new and starting. Sundeck is «completely modera house. 1s built into the contour of the land 0 that it secre to have ‘romn there. The drawing room is long and narrow, panelled ‘with wie boards running horizontally. AL one end its lighted by great curving windows, rather like the last car ofthe Ten Leds Century Limited The furishings are low, comfortable ‘hairs big stas and smaller seuces that resemble Roman ban ‘qucting couches A Whitcombdesigued grand piano of cream Colored walnut is matched by the conole of a big pipe organ Built into one wall ofthe room isa radiozecord player. Wait comb is very proud of this juke bex, which he made himsel from spare pars of a Capehart. Ie lighted control panel looks like the intent board of » B38, [Next to painting, Whitcomb lover marie bt; and at any hour ofthe day or right, he apt so tora to anus making for relaxation from the grind of work. “The master bedroom, one wal of which ia single huge mi ror, and the bathroom, which contains many new and curious ‘gadgets, invented by the owner for his convenience, carry on the World of Tomorrow motit; but it isin the studio chat Whit ‘comb really let himaelf go. Like the drawing room, i x very Tong, besusfally panelled, lusiously and stchingly furnished ‘The Bveplac is raised on long, curving sep of grec slate, and «brad chimney of dhe same material scarred upto the xing. “The Breplace self is rather small and placed of enter, yeti forms part of asymmetrical devgn. Above n place of a mantel Js a curiously shaped white rough that is always filled with leaves or flowers. On these plays 4 pin spot light that can be controlled to change the color af the Nawers to please Whit: ‘combs mood. Am elaborate switchboard controls the main light ing, which can be dimmed or rained to great brilinee. The tack wall ofthe rom is partly covered by a large mirror, drugh ‘which itis posible to project the lens of a movie machine. On| the long, inner wall an accordion screen that opens into the workroom where Whitcomb’ secretary presides among 4 vast irray of filing cabinets and the raw materials and tools of the nts — and photographer's — craft. end of the studio, isn rent sheet of fof it stands the artis Specially designed casel-drawing board, his working chair and {ables for paints and brushes. The traditional array of cubes of ‘olor, boules of ink and the worn brushes sticking up out of chin ase Seems ey rca though the had sap a rom another era “Don’t you ever get lonely living by yourself in this big house?” I aaked ny Bot. ‘Whitcomb Iughed. "I'm never alone in i.” he sid. “Te wom to me thet people ate always pouting though, busines anc dates, models whom T'n painting, fellow ards, guess and "The workmen are there because Whitcomb i+ continually replanning bis house. The old (1898) part vas designed by ‘A. Musgrave Hyde, but the ars is now his own architect and jn addition does much of the cabinet work himeell He is also building another modem house back in the woods a the at ptt of real tate development he i underthing How do you want to be presented?” 1 asked Whitcomb. “That is, how do you think Of younelt in relation to your pile and the students you will teach With rare and engaging franknes, he replied, “You can say that L don’t think of mysell at an amit Fm » manufacture, supplying something editors want to buy. Somewhere I disco fered what these people want and through a fortunate chain af ‘Sreumetances I find ensll able to produce it "Then he pursued his pilosoph, which combines a purely practical approach with is own enthusiasm for innovation ‘You've got to be something new each year” he sud. "Av long 4s Lean, ll Keep a nonstatic qualiy. 1 doa't want to be dated. ‘The fellows who have gone overthehill lost out because they allowed themselves to be identified with an era.” Whitcomb regards his afiiation with the Insiute ax an ‘opportunity to explain his work to people who are intrested fi it-"I have ben doing this for year im answering fa letters” he said. "Now I will have the opportunity co explain things at restr lengih, Writing this course has made me understand ysl ewe.” ‘Hie modesty added thatthe greatest hurdle he had to face in this connection was acting as though he had a right tobe a pro- fesion. "The self analysis requied in preparing a course makes sme trib aware of my limitations” he told me. "On the other and, I believe thatthe things that make artist interating 12 a buyer ave their shorecominga Flies plus virtues add up 10 character” "Though Whitcomb stouuy denies it, this erative discontent with his owa work is the mark of the true artist whose mind an envision the ideal beauty that his hands cannot execute, He seated it plainly in answer to my question at to his ambition for his future. Very serious, for once he replied slowly "havent a ssurdy ego or» good opinion of my work. Ofeen T hate my pie tures five mines after I ave fnibed them. Some day Tl tke to go on t where Ican do things to please me. I have no ambi tion to paint for future generations. Al T want sto be good ight now" Most people think that Jon Whiteom has already achieved that ambienJon Whitcomb Working procedure Insitute of Commercial At, ne Whitcomb's early workJon Whitcomb Working procedure Insite of Commercial At, ne. 4 Some Achieve cy Later work by WhitcombJon Whitcomb Working procedure Intute of Commercial A, feJon Whitcomb Working procedure Intute of Commeril ArtJon Whitcomb Working procedure Inst of Commerce A, Introduction 1 want to welcome you a student 1 hope to show you many things that I have learned abou illustration since I painted ny fit picture for Coler’s in 1988, and to help you assemble a portolio of drawings which may very well lid you a job. oF AC Test Took very handsome om your living room walls Right now, I want to give you a quick View ofthe course as a whole so that you can sce where we are going to sart ard fo where we intend to finish. Tn this rst leson, which lies spread out all around you at this moment, we are geting acquainted. By way of introduction, you have read a biography of me and Seen my photograph Working snethode willbe considered in thi leuon beeause 1 cannot very well show you my pictures and explain how Lake them without discussing my methods of working. You will dis over that drseing i ot the word's neatest profession and that iny studio js about ar meny ae it can get. (OF eure I clean Up between jobs, but this an ordeal for me because T hate house work) Thete will aio be much discussion of paints and brushes By this time se willbe erawling out ofthe lite af ll pene subs worn eraer and ‘Tagua to take a look at modele As you may have mpected, ici by the merest har shat 1 have eaped being type as a prety gil aris. So we wil ake some pins to analyze pretty git, and along with them, some men nd litle boys ite girls and babies You wil find this leon fun, Meanwhile, you night start saving snapshots of your fver- ite pinup peopl to be hashed over in connection with this Teo Tnone lesion we ge right down tocases and tke up The Face Mort people, to most other people, are faces rst, aid people Second. By this L mean that very few people in eal le come 10 be denied principally by other wecions of the chasis. Through ‘what I like to think i no fault of my own, I have drawn more Saqare yards of The Face in any career than anything ese. So lets face it~ there will bea lotto say about eyebrows, mouths, car, nove, double chins, makeup, hairdo’, scheolgn) com pletion, five o'lock shadows and thote romantic violet eyes that lady authors ate alwayy mentioning in abort stories, Per onally, Ihave never sen a vilet eye, but authors have, 50 who fm Ito quibble (K know a gil with orange eyes, but ty to tll thie toa writer) it you are thinking of discontinuing your subscription to Vogue, plese reconsider. Because in one lesson we are going to be up to our hips in Felon. No one serouly concerned tvith madera illastration can igoore styles, whether in coches, Tumiure architectre, landscape gardening or piture framing. Every year, every one of these gets a thorough overhasl, and ‘magarne ants have to stat feeb. Just get ut of step for a Few years, as some of us did during the wa, and the suuggle to ‘ge back on the beam becomes major enterprise. "This lesson will cover the problems involved in keeping up to date om fashions in everything and wil include a methos of fnlcalating styles in adoence. Magazines are publied from two to four months afer the content in them are asembled, This Ics that an artis sho wishes to drew a heroine im Jy for fv October isue must be able to forecast rather accurately just What girls will be wearing in October. Beause not everyone is invited to fashion previews of the great design houses. and be caate busy iltrators coud welder find the time 1 go anyhow, the mont relible source of euch information iv the lashion ‘magazine, of which there are many. Another lesion includes a general discussion of the research, ‘or source materi, side of illusion. This is what you might call the structural part of puting a picare together. Very few people realize the amount of backstage labor necessary to orga tne information s0 that an authors serpe can be tansfortned into an accurate voual version, Aide to ths part of the work Include a chummy acquaintance with your lol Tibrary, espe ialy the pitore section. Ifyou must paint a pice of bar dance in Missouri in the Fall of 1871, you must know what the scene was lke, So you must have a pictre Ble of your own oF know someone who does. This lesson wil give you rough idea of where to look for sch information and wil discus the angles volved in saving and clasiying clippings for youre ‘Magazines are one source of material. | would like to lise de publications in my own sngarne ack I consder the following Inagazines to be inciapensable in my businews Architectural Forum, Harpers Basaar, Holiday, Howse Beautiful, Howse and Garden, Life, ane Vogue. The following I think ae highly esen- tial and I clip material from them for my fest Colliers, Conno: polit, Good Housekeeping. Interiors, Ladies Home Journ LOficel (Pars), Mademoiselle, MeCells and The Satwrdoy ‘Evening Port. Other magazines in my racks include: American, Fortune, Hollywood Reporter, New Yorker, Time, Woman's Home Gompanion and tvo newspapers, The New York Times and Women’s Weer Daly. Try to read all of these briefly, some of them carefully. My copies of Life ae hept in bound volumes by the yea. Tis is the only magarine which T ule in this way because Life pub- Tish an upeo-date index to the contents which T alto keep ‘ound, Ie story has a Burmese locale, for example, iis easy (0Jon Whitcomb Working procedure Insite of Commercial A, ne. 13 look up relerenes and pictues inthe Life index. T do not mean to mugger that you need take all of these magazine, or even any of them. 1 ave simply Found that this array helps me the mos in the sor of assignments Ihave been given. The list may change fom year to year, just a everyting fhe does, and when new publications come along I expect 0 Subscribe to them and drop certain old ones. I take the French magazine because French fations are facinating although Title exotic for application to American illustrations The Hollywood Reporter eeps me informed about motion pictures ling filmed fom stories T have illustrated and gives me news About the activites of former model of mine who ate now in the movies. T have never been able to Keep track ofthe appearaness in ‘magazines of my paintings for advertiements,s0 1 do not have ‘complete file of them. But T make a special effort ta save six tae tht of al my eto pete maguine covers ahd ‘Neary all artists are chronic skerchers, so itis a good idea to cary 4 small pad and a penal with you for miscellaneous dood Ting and the recording of face for future use. This information, too, should be saved classified and filed. Otherwise, you wil never he able to locate i when you want it Just to Keep you from geting too bogged down with this ncesary but unexciting Alivsion of dio operations we wll ake time out in this ero to go into some move pervonal things Iwill oer some observa ons about my oven preferenes in artists and pictres and will tention + few thingy in tis business which 1m crazy about — and vom others that just about drive me cay. 'AL some painc in learning how to make interesting illustra tions for the current market, you wll have to cope with the sub jt of photography, speically photographs to help you make drawings. We will ick this imporeane matter around in one lewon, exploring the advantages of «camera, the drawbacks and the esses way to steer a safe course through the hazards. Inc ena if you are one of the ten people in the United Seas ‘who lo not know how to take photographs, will show you. Ics ‘ay. I have some Gxed ideas about equipment too and you may be interned in them. Mont artis I know, inciuding me, bate to hear an att director s2y,"Look ~ how about doings picture in black and whit, jst {i change of pace?” This may mean that he really does wane a ‘change of pace but it too tat to come ight out and tll You that your sui getting monotonous. Or t may mean that his ‘budget i low and all the full color locations are asigned £0 ‘other artists, Orit may mean tht an advertisement inthe back ‘of the magazine dictates the color plates inthe front. Whatever fe means almont everyone actually prefers full olor, fll juicy ourcolor~prelerably with bleeds that go right aerom all the ‘margins. As agave premes improve, which hey do every Yar, the pring Gdelity gets Dewer and beter and almest all the froncrank publications add more color sections trom time to time, So in this lason we will go into color for reproduction, ‘lor for mood, colt forse, colar in tubes, in your brush, on Your hands and, if you are anything ike me, color all over the foot "You will want to know some of the ways of using color that higespoed prones can handle. Everybody has w colo theory and Tam no exception. I have a theory which 1 vide ike 2 howe Some day ii going to throw me and Iam looking for another fone that I can get right up om when that happens. Alter this Tesi I want you to do some experimenting with alr. In many ays this sa Yery personal part of drawing, and one that comes fut of each person diferenty. 1am not gong to try to change your feeling for color in the smallest way. This belongs entirely { you, and should remain that way. ‘With the pouible exception of Reeders Digest, os mags tines have a nevaetand satgy closely approsching General Patios in his march across France. Anjone seeing a large clus. ter of American magasne covers for the Att time might come to the conclusion that loud colors, pretty gir’ heads and over ‘whelming lipstick repreent the only form of attack. This is ‘ot true Some publications consider i cagey to underplay thet covers relying on muted colors and blurzed figures to lize the “Gragutore public Magarines with large subcrptioncirclations ‘worry lew about the competiive newatand eflct than thowe Which sella lage part of their output over the counter. Such Magazines can sit back on heir prosperous behinds and go i for Capita’A’Art on Page Io no ar at all. Others go to extra gant lengths to explode with violent color in each iu, making ste that each copy looks enuely dillerent from whe preceding fone. Magazines with the same price and the sume ise format onsider that they are fighting for the same buyer and retain furvey organizations to tll hem ever few minutes jst who ‘ahead For all these reasons, cover art ~ whether photography of plnting is regarded somewhat solemnly by the people who plan it buy it and subsequency fight the Bate of the News ands with it You Rave heatd about a chain being no stronger than is weakest link. Some people think that whole magazine stands or falls on the sate of its cover. Im not sure that 1 ‘would ever fel that way, speaking ara reader about to part With a quarter, but it gives you a rough idea of the backing snd filling that goes on behind the scenes. Inthe lat fee years 1 have worked on more than sixty cover plctutes for tres maga zines with large cicalations ~ The Saterday Evening Post, Co lier and Good Housekeeping, In one leson 1 will pill some ‘of my experiences inthis department You might be charmed to Know that it will be a mixed repor. combining considerable ‘rofeuional plessare withthe lawer depths of personal agony Nest we cone to The Technique, Aknot every dey someone writs me wo say with a peel staight fee, "T enjoy drawing ‘ery mich but T would like to Anow from you how 1 get tet nique.” In this lason I expect to come up with the answer to this poser and I do not want to ever explain again thatthe shoe ison the other fot. You don’t get a technique ~ the technique fgets you Like color, itis iting up there right inthe middle of our head, and if this rounds erypei, hang om une thi eson "Now, afterall these bits and picees have been absorbed by you, are come tothe poine where we put them ll together. In {his lesson Twill analye some case histories of pictures I have done and ay to show you where all the foregoing information fits into the end product ofthis busines ~ the picture ill ‘When you have nished thie course you wil have 2 substan tial collection of interesting drawings, not favored with Whit comb but built on your own personality “And now Tam shout to presch to you lor evo minutes When14 Jon Whitcomb Working procedure Invite of Commercial A Ie ‘ra inisbed, wil be off my chest and for the et of this couse TH never open my trap again eacept in a conventional ven People like me who work for publications get mail. Rockwel, Doltanos, Parker and the rest ofthe faculty of the Instiute of Commercial Are gee thousands of leters from strangers. The people who write to me have 2 xed idea which turns up be {een the lines in alot every ler. This idea is quit fale 1 never quite finish poiating ovt why iti fale, beste bore 1 ‘Gin fish answering one stack of leters containing this suanige ‘ea, another pile has come in. Ths peculiar delusion of» great many people rans about lke this: "There ls someshing taught in are schools that I'can learn and sell” Nope there ist There ss nothing you can ever, ever sell except your oun per sonality. No art school I ever heard of, including this one, ever gave anybody & penonlity. A personality, which ie an individual's ‘ost private poneon, hi exclusive propery, and his property sone, bulé put of his own private personal experiences right back to the cradle (tome peychologits say back beyond that. Roll all ofthis up into one man and you have a collection of habits, prejudices, likes, disikes, aversion, preferences, yens Weaknec, strong point, charm, cusses and a general over {ll avor that makes thie peron completely diferent from any- ‘ne ene in the world, even hein. By the Uae cur an enralls Ivan att school, this lavor a st asin concrete. He learns how to hold a brush and what kind of alizarin cron to use, but the drawing tac emerges onthe white paper infront of him i diferent from that of the guy next co im. Ie has been fered through the seve of our man’s personaly thas his Havor. I is iiely hi No-one could possibly copy it ‘That isthe ingrediont which buyers buy, which sellers sl “There is + necoiy 0 label this ingredient. For practieal pur potest could be referred to as imagination. That is what shall fall i om here on, for Want of a better word. Everybody has 2 bfeime copyright on his own imagination, ‘The patent can be fede to your experience rows, but it an never be infringed. Some years agoa magazine, The Pictoral Review, capitalined briety om thin divenity of imagination. It gave out the same uignment tsi diferent arta, Mr. Gene Davis was the art ‘ditor and he printed the paintings on facing pages 20 reader= ould compare six diferent versions by sk iflerene personal Ines No one ofthese drawings had anything in common with ny of the others — except the subject of the picture. ‘The ap- proach, point of view and teatment were as diverse as the raat themselves, “Ths in the drawings which you are going to make for me ator reading these lesors, you will nevtably display your own personal favor. I think that you wll nd my own experiences find preferences intresting. Some of them wil be uimesavers for you and you may very well desire to adopt them as your ‘own, But I do not wis, nor would I be able, to influence the Special brand ofthe work you do. All I ean dois introduce you to some pues ofa basins in which Ihave been able to earn ty living, Alter the introduction, T shall expect you to pursue {he acquaintance as vigorously or at caualy as you choose, The ‘ope of acquaintance which develops wil naaraly turn out to bye the «ype you make ie yours entirely, with your own special stamp upon i. And thats something no one can ever take aa) from you.Jon Whitcomb Working procedure Institute of Commerc A, ne Working Procedure For betier or for worse this is where I work. Rather itis one of the places. | have another olfice in New York City that provides a place where 1 can discuss advertising problems with clients, I do all my work in these two places. A few years ago I made a serious attempt to take my work with me when I went on a vacation. Taking my work ‘long vas liverally the only way 1 could get any time away from home. ‘The attempt turned out disastrously 1 find that, for me, the concentration necessary to paint is incompatible with strange places, strange people and strange equipment. It’s like my playing the piano ~ one ‘of my amateur interests, When I'm confronted with somebody else's keyboard, [ can never think of a thing to play. So now, when I manage to snatch a stray weekend or, at rare intervals, a whole week off, leave my work behind like a cas of suit. If for any reason I had to move to another studio, there would undoubtedly be 3 long, crying period of several weeks in which I would fidget aimlessly about inventing excuses to avoid work. The studio you see above is fairly new, having been built quite recently, But I have settled into my groove now and it's not too hard to disconnect the phone, shut out distractions and get down to work. [ike cheerful surroundings and I am selfish enough to demand a fairly comfortable working place considering the hard fact that my working day runs anywhere from ten to eighteen and sometimes twenty-four hours. This schedule may frighten youJon Whitcomb Working procedure ‘out of your wits It does me, when I stop to think about it 1 am still on the sunny side of middle age and there are not less than sixteen Uhousand things I could enjoy doing if I hadn't promised faithfully to finish illustra tions for a serial by the nineteenth, a cover by the sixteenth and four advertising ‘drawings by tomorrow morning. Right here I would like to recormendl to all hanls that if a career in advertising art happens to you, never get yourself in such a spot Some day I am going to take myself by the collar and analyze the problem which is: Whitcomb, look here, leave us not be silly. An eight hour day with Saturdays and Sundays off is good enough for other people. What's stopping you from having a free evening now and then? Buc I never do it. I make good resolutions every New Year; I clecide to kick hall ry clients in the teeth an I won't be young forever, There's a river with sailboats one mile away. There's a dance at the country club. There's 2 new electric saw in the workshop just waiting for me to cut my fingers on it. There's car in the garage I have never had a chance to rive except (o the railroad station. There's a new concerto I'll never be able to hear organize myself on a sensible basis ‘There's a tan I ought to work on; a movie I want to see. In addition co all these personal reasons there is the realization that in this business you are only as good as your last picture. (Oh well, the last three pictures then.) ‘The totalling of last month’ bills and the reluctance to face more leisure on half the dough is understandable. I never get around to any of this selFimprovement. I don't recom mend this system. T expect all of you to be much smarter. To work The drawing board shown on the left is fairly old and moderately rickety. Don't let the gliter fool you; it’s an old stand 1 had chromium plated. The work table you see here is 4 Dohanos artis’s taboret. It is the best contraption I have found for hholding quantities of paint, water and miscellaneous small tools. It keeps them handy fori 1 paint siting down which sounds prev lazy. Everything in my studio is on wheels so things can be whipped around easily into whatever arrangements make things more accessible, This holds true for all the tables and even my record player which some ‘mes must be shoved aside to make room far models. My housekeeper likes the arrangement so well I have even put wheels under the furniture in the living room. To hold water for my painting, there are four laboratory beakers nested ina glass container. For palettes I like butcher trays with a white enamel finish obtainable at any hardware store, I bave about a dozen of these in assorted sizes so if Lam working fon several jobs at once, I can save small batches of color that are already mixed. The nest of glass dishes at the rear of the taboret holds large quantities of mixed water color. 1 am not very particular about brushes although I like them when they are news and hate them as soon as the point has worn off. Brushes are my most expensive tools; [have to buy a lot of them. The ones I use most run from size 5 through size 9 In the drawers I try to keep a supply of erasers for inind changing. ‘The drawers also hold Venus pencils, Mongol colored pencils and the usual array of thumb tacks,Jon Whitcomb Working procedure naive of Commerial At, Ine.18 Jon Whitcomb Working procedure Insttte of Commercial At, ne ‘compasses and rulers, Color in cubes, both Winsor Newion transparent and Designers! colors in somewhat larger tubes, are Kept in their carton boxes in another cabinet. Years ago a tube of transparent color lasted a Jong time and usually hardened in the tube before I ever used it up. Nowadays the paint goes on thicker, with more of it ‘opaque in the current fashion, and the supply goes fast. Next to brushes, colors are the biggest item in the budget ‘As for choice of colors, I use practically the whole array the manufacturers offer. It seems to me that no mixture of red and yellow on the palette is ever ae bright as the manufacturer's orange. When I need a certain shade of green, I hunt through my tubes wouil I find it, Mixing the stuf is always a last resor. Since my work is reproduced by the engraver as soon as Ican finish painting it and has litle, if any, value afterwards, I pay no attention to the lasting qualities of pig ‘ments. However, the permanency of colors is indicated by a code number on the cube. ‘That's something I ignore. Before the war I used to paint a lot with German aniline dye watercolor because of its brilliance. But 1 came across an old painting the other day done with aniline dyes that had faded out almost entirely. So, if you want your drawings to look good to your grandchildren, leave the fugitive pigments alone. For tints of color, I use Permo White and Dwight White. Permo is easy to make washes with, never cracks off in heavy layers and is kind to brushes because it washes ‘out easily, But it doesn’t cover dark areas very well. For one-coat whites or light areas ‘over datk ones, a casein-base white, like Dwight White, is better. But it doesn't flow easily from the brush and is hard to rinse out. Ifthe area is big enough, colors mixed in casein white are applied with stiff, oil bristle brushes, No paint chemist would approve of the way I fasten down successive layers of ‘underpainting. [like to work allover a drawing at once so I can Keep a color and tone balance across the whole thing and I don't like to have the bottom layers smeared ‘when I add more washes. Several times during the progress of a drawing, I spray it with a thin film of lacquer, Grumbacher Pastel Fixative. This keeps pencil marks from rubbing off and the early layers of watercolor from mixing with whatever I feel like pucting on next, ‘The fixative also keeps certain colors from bleeding through lighter washes applied later on top. For adding small quantities of water to batches of mixed color, I use a rubber car syringe (available at any drug store) . The Scotch tape is useful for holding tissue paper down when tracing a sketch, fastening clippings to the drawing board or holding a thumb tack, point up, to use a8 a vanishing point “The small bottle with the rubber stopper is a wetting agent which you ean buy under several trade names. This one is called Aerosol. It makes water color “wetter” so i will flow over slightly greasy spots on a drawing or spots made too slick by inks to hold the color. A fraction of one drop will "wet" a whole lot of water, like a batten of clean stel wool ofa very fine grade for smoothing out color pencil areas or for mild erasing. It will also take some ofthe grain off rough water color board if nced a smoother surface for fine details. ‘My hand powered pencil sharpener has been replaced by an electric one, I'm aJon Whitcomb Working procedure 9 Inet of Commercial A, te sucker for gadgets in spite of the fact that I have never been able to find much use for aan eleccrie eraser I once bought. It burned holes in the paper My darkroom has about everything in it for making quick prints for jobs. Ul tell You more about this phase of aay work when we discuss photography ina later Feson. My working day starts about nine — or ten or eleven if I worked most of the previous night. My secretary, who always gets a good night's sleep, comes about cer thirty and we go over the mail. Fan letters get answered once 2 month by dictation Errands for the day are planned and, if models are coming up from New York, train schedules are checked. Props for future jobs are written down on the bulletin board TThese notes may read: “evening gown, automobile jack, bagpipes and what size shoes dloes Debby take.” New jobs are written in, with the dates they are due, on the elephant size calendar For this I use an enormous pen with various colored inks. [cis called Flomaster. I do this o I can see what my obligations are without using binoculars. For years I used {0 miss dates, forget engagements, stand up clients and make myself unpopular by promising to be several places at once — all because the calendars people gave me weren't large enough. Now I have big photestats especially blown up, so [ean write down several impending crises in one square. If this day is like most others, [will have seen my mai, run through the day's batch fof mew magazines and read the New York Times, paying special atcention to the ads for women’s elothes. The art you see in advertisements for Lord and Taylor,20 Jon Whitcomb Working procedure Insite of Commercial Arte Sala, Bonwit Tellers and Arnold Constable is very nearly perfect for Keeping track of curren syes (although noc fr advance fashion}. Techni iis the equal of and frequently more bilan in execution than some of the magatnedrawinge At ten the telephone will begin ringing and ny secxeary wl handle some ofthe all Bu Til Have to cope with other or inance, McGas phoned tony to sy they disagreed with my conception of an old Idina job delivered yesterday a that the editors felt {had ade het oo nuh of musical comedy typeI ak tat any old lady described as drinking her oven liquor ona pasenger plane plas some other doer commited inthe couse of the manuscript would eeinly sem to have something raksh about her. Mel's ‘eas ttinae so that mater was Ifo be trash out in New York in the again’ ofices tomorrow afternoon a three otlack. This means 1 will have to min 2 ball 2 day's work here an wil be forced to work gant the deadline tomorrow night. All this infomation goes down on the calendar. Delivering drawings to New York from my home (one hou each way by tin o cat) requires some ingenuity. T art wth, Iam never able to say in advance just when drawing will be finshed. Some jobs fay smoothly and cooperate wth ne More than likely ome will be temperamental and change their minds in midsream 1 1eo am a mind changer; and one ofthe reson at sully presed for Tam quite capable of changing my mind chee quarters ofthe way trough drawing “Then lage portion have tobe ered, wathed of rsnply earanged, Some ats, like Robert Fawcet, are perectionias and cannot bear 10 comider a daving completed if there is any par of i they donot tik. Tn too easy going to be that Shartan about things but have been known to make fresh tar rom seratch in the face ofthe mt inten dealings. Sometimes ny secretary has wo drop everyting and take my ished work o town semctines iti lene an a eugoing hou guest on, ava fal resort my ofc in town sends outa messenger. Along about noon {wll be: (2) working oma job oF (0) Ba on my back making up lot sleep. All his ime Iwi he eying. the back of my mind, to sort ut the characters ina couple of short tri, vometimes doing this on threo Four ores, ‘once. The manuscripts may have ben end days or werk ago and quick notes mae in the margin a to eooring of heroine, numberof xs. on her, whether the meen ‘vas winter or spring and ne the preset or 112 You'd be surprised how the population of thee shot sores ean get thenelses ined up. hat todo pictures with crows of people unlike Austin Brigg who loves it the more the merrier So, whenever Lean 1 yt bel the characters own fo number I ean handle Tunaly red a story manusript tie, Fst for Fun and seco for information For inance, [have to know: the important characters, which characters appear in the ilurated cen, thir age, color of har color of eye, how dred, how fixe financially ~ would the irl be wearing clothes sited wth chiparelo Sears Roebuck Is the mond ofthe yr sa gay oF i between? Te a god plan to jo all of thee things down in the margin ofthe mannii. sinc authors sometines wait unt the en ofthe try to tell you thatthe heroine’ hit has 2 reddish glow. or, again the writer may bury an allusion tothe her’ me is thatJon Whitcomb Working procedure Insite of Commercial A, fe freckles in a paragraph you'd never notice later. (On the first reading, I try to visualize the story as a movie. Viewed this way, the big scene or scenes aren’t hard to locate, Some stories are loaded with situations that Tend themselves to interesting poses and layouts. Others haven't much action at all, in which case the artist must invent some — with the magazine's permission — or plan 41 mood illustration which will give the reader a quick impression of the sort of story he is offered. The story, “Night in Cincinnati,” by Moster Mauger was a young love story of ‘ovo movie theatre ushers. The tale was short on action bu long on romantic intan aibles like adolescent yearning and dewy nostalg The girl fell in love with the boy before he eve dark working asa theatre usher; consequently, it was necessary to utilize some pictorial dlevice to show this longing on the part of the girl and to set the mood for the reader. After a couple of readings, I decided that the girl probably identified herself with the people she watched repeatedly on the screen. My rough sketch for the art director showed romantic action on the screen, larger than lifesize if you compared it to the foreground figures of the young couple. The scene piccured could have happened in the sory. But it was not mentioned by the author. No specific scene on the moviescreen was ever described. But I thought this typified the mood and the events in the story — and the editors agreed with me. | used the same girl to pose for the movie actress and the girl usher as a deliberate psychological tieup between them, Many stories fall slightly short of providing ready made noticed her — afterall, it's rather uations which the ‘sn sy meet no al22 Jon Whitcomb Working procedure Inlue of Commercial Ar, fe illustrator needs for his picture. Most publications approve of the aris’s contribution to the problem, which is to carry on where the writer leaves off. In other wor, i it could have happened and the author didn't mention it, the picture becomes a logical extension of the text. Another story which emphasized the boy-mectsgirl angle, but in a much more lively and down to eatth vein, was “Be Your Own Sweet Self,” by Ruth Rankin Lamson, The plot involved a young girl with severe doubts about her attractiveness visiting Hollywood, a famous film star friend of the girl's mother, and a boy the young girl meets in a book shop. No single incident described by the author seemed adequate to me to convey the message of the ttle and at the same time indicate the hetoine’s mental struggle over her personality. The solution lay in what might be called a diagram. I simply drew the girl looking doubutul, the boy looking puzzled and che movie actress looking worried. I set che stage forthe general tone of the story ‘without dipping into any actual situation Asan example ofa story that presented no planning problems whatsoever, I presentJon Whitcomb Working procedure Inst of Commerc At ne ‘My Sweet Angel” by Norma Mansfeld. It had one big scere involving the principal characters that also suited the color requirements for the location of the picture in the magazine. It was a story of a self centered movie star, her small daughter, her cexhusband and her secretary who was in love with the husband, The actres's arrival by plane at a rainy airport had every thread of the story tied together in one scene, showed sll the principal characters and displayed some of the glamour you expect 10 see in fiction about Hollywood people. Working with several magazines at once, you learn very quickly that each one has its own set of preferences and prejudices. Each has a general pattern that you have to Keep in mind when planning pictures for their fiction. If the same story were bought by The American Magazine, Ladies’ Home Journal and Good Housekeeping and you were asked to supply pictures for all three, you would have to make three rather sharply diferent illustrations. vis true that the women’s magazines tend to buy similar stories because their readers are no doubt very much alike, But each magazine has its individual style and most illustrators are careful to keep in mind the set of preferences for each magazine. For instance, Ladies’ Home Journal likes very feminine, romantic pictures with considerable attention paid to styles and fashions. The same story if printed in Collier's, might turn up with the picture accent on action and striking layout. If Cosmopolitan bought it, the story would almost certainly be illustrated by a picture with the emphasis, in a very well bred way of course, on Sex. Every magazine I know of is on a constant quest for new, original ways of doing illustrations. All illustrators working coday try to inject something fresh into each new picture, This means illustrators must constantly experiment, because to settle down to one way of doing things month alter month is fatal. This is the point where ‘opportunities for new and unknown artists come in, Confronted with the problem ‘of where to sell their work, most young artists are Fearful that it may be hard 10 break into the business It is hard only for people with nothing interesting to sell. If you have a fresh, novel approach showing imagination and a vivid viewpoint, ‘magazines will fall all over themselves making you welcome. This welcome, however, is reversible. Let me point out that it is possible to fall out of favor just as quickly. Famous artists whose work you can look at now on any newsstand may slide into the great beyond by simply going sale and banal. The same old stuff, warmed up and served in the same old style has a very short life. Probably ‘most of you can name one or two sad examples of this depressing possibility. ‘An eminent illustrator whose reputation comes from work he did fifteen or twenty years ago told me once, "You think you're working hard now, after three years in this business. Wait until you finish your frst five thousand pictures and then tell me how you feel, He went on to explain that he was bored to death with success, with painting, with being a celebrity and with life in general, This attitude flavored his work and he is not seen these days in magazines. Almost all creative ingenuity grows out of being not bored. The whole trick 10 ‘maintaining a fresh imagination is to remain curious about life. If you stay interested, you stay interesting.Jon Whitcomb Working procedure The happiest brides have How | Make A Picture —Step by Step An advertising problem The job chosen here as an example was one of a series for @ cient whose product is bough for and by women, Surveys show that this client’ involves a young and pretty girl, usually about eighteen, wearing a high style (but not to0 high for lowa and New Mexico) weeding outfit — a girl fresh of face and smiling appropriately to illustrate the company's slogan “The Happiest Brides Have Community.” After the caption, the copy block and the product have bee lover the painting, there is noc much room left to spread out the traditional pageantry of a bridal gown; consequently, all the fashion angles have to be concentrated in the hair, the headdress and small details of bouquet and neckline. These details are guesses fon my part, Some can be plotted by analyzing fashion magazines but most of them are imaginary. My crystal ball must aim four to six months ahead, when the al will appear nost effective sales appeal ranged G community. ‘ites ee, 2.Jon Whitcomb Working procedure 2526 Jon Whitcomb Working procedureJon Whitcomb Working procedure Insti of Comercio A, te 27Jon Whitcomb Working procedure Black and one color Most magazine artists do more full-color jobs than black-and-white, but sometimes full color is not available for certain locations in a magazine. Here is a story illustra tion which had to be designed for 2 blackand-green position, without bleed. This means that the picture area could not extend into the white type margins, Withou bleed, a small magazine page, such as Cosmopotitan’s, looks even smaller. After reading the manuseript, shown here, I found that the factual doings of the characters offered litte action, ‘There was much thought and conversation but nothing happened. Ly telephone, the art editor and 1 agreed that the picture should demonstrate the feeling in the story rather than any actual incident, Ingredients: Boy and girl theater ushers facing each other in front of exaggerated movie screen. Glass lobby barrier to cextend across both pages as a device to tie them together and form a panel for the sory title i Jrrnsin ones on she Scent th ee oo ris an ben wh si eg wich ay py mehHow I make a picture * We ow Atte Mone OF THE FACULTY OF Institute of Commercial Art, .... Westport, ConnecticutJon Whitcomb The face Insitute of Commercial At, neJon Whitcomb The face The Face What makes a pretty: pretty There are to mediums which pretty girls: the movies and the press. These influences are not always pointing in thesame direction at thesame time, For instance, the close-ups of Miss Lana Turner, 1 currently popular licker star, do not exactly suggest the types you see in this year’s fashion magazines, But there is a rough correlation between real life, the influence fashions in ‘movies and the pictures in the magazines. Thousands of girls cut pictures out of magazines and paste them up ‘on their mirrors for technical scrutiny; other thou: sands, possibly millions, study their film favorites avidly for guides to make-up, hair sles, clothes and even personal mannerisms. Over the space of 2 few years, these preferred styles ean change radically. ‘After the first World War, the vamp and the flapper waxed and waned, Nowadays they seem almost like burlesque types. Just before the last war we had short skirts and long glamour bobs. Since then, the trend has bbeen steadily toward longer skirts and shorcer hair, ‘with heavy makeup giving way to more natural eyes and lips. Possibly due to the vast sums spent by the cosmetic advertisers, soap and cold cream manufac turers, gis are now frankly wellscrubbed and inv ibly madeup. There is a feeling that plainJooking faces ate pretty much the git’s own fault American dentistry can overcome practically any regularity of teeth, and plastic surgeons turn out ideal litle noses for fees ranging from modest co outrageous, Eyebrows ean be managed, and the hair dye people ‘ean supply almost any color under the sun. Since maga zine illustrations deal almost exclusively with heroines of great facial beauty, we will analyze some of the com ponents of the pretty face,Jon Whitcomb The face Init of Commarcil Aa Ine. a th 7 bv ts de, with shedow weit or LPR ~~ agen NTS eechodonr end te. factions of pein of Eyes ‘The most important feature of the eye isthe iris. For some reason, gis with irises a ltee larger than usual seem co be prettier. This is a crtical ‘measurement, since getting an iris too big is unpleasing. When I draw a pretty gitl, I sometimes spend a long time making the irises smaller and larger until they look just right to me. The eyes sketched at the left, belong to a girl with exceptionally large irises, and they are not enlarged in proportion to the rest of her face. ‘The sizeof the pupil, or black spot in the iis, depends on the amount ‘of light striking the eye. Flashlight photographs of girls with light blue eyes show the whole irs as black, since the pupil does not have time to contract when the flash goes off. In bright sunlight, a light eye will be extremely light and the pupil very small. In drawing a close-up of an ‘eye, you must consider it to be a small mirror, and that it will reflect points of light, if any are present, ‘The current fashion in eyelashes is to emphasize the top row from about the center of the iris to the outside comer, and to minimize the lower lashes. They should be somewhat uneven and of varying lengths. ‘This to, is a critical affair. If too long, they will look false. TE too shor, they will make the eye too plain, If too dark, they will make the girl look too heavily made-up. Depending on the lighting, they will cast their own shadows, and I usually try to indicate that. In the movies, eyelashes have a definite curve upward at the outside edge. While seldom found as standard equipment, this touch is 2 valuable device for widening small eyes, or eyes placed too close together; and in ad ition it gives a cheerful look. Two eyes [Never draw eyes that match. They are not found in nature and don’t Took quite right if you draw them that way, There can be subtle differ- ences between the two eyes of any one person, ether in size, direction of iris, slant of lids or the indication of skin folds above and below the eye. This is especially imporianc in indicating certain expressions, such as sadness, quizticalty or delight. Eyebrows should never be identical cither. This is the reason why absolutely perfect faces occasionally en countered in real life fail to be entirely satisfying. ‘When shut, an eye folds the two rows of lashes together, so that they are dravn much darker.Jon Whitcomb The face Insts of Commercial At, ne. Eyebrows Eyebrows are the easiest things on a face to manipulate for expression. For a prety girl, the brows are usually a generous distance above the eye: If they aren't she may look sinister or hill-illyish or she may be scowling. They shouldn't look plucked or make a thin line. Plucked eyebrows may come back into fashion, but they aren't hot stuff right nov. Unless the girl is an exotic eype of brunette, with coal black eyes, 1 prefer eyebrows fairly light in tone, never painted as dark asthe eye lashes. They can be arched, or peaked, or just slightly curved, but in general they are wider toward the nose and taper a bit toward the ear. cis best to draw them in with a basic tone and then add just enough hair texcure (o suggest that they are alive and growing. I have come across models who are unable to move their brows, and consequently they look pretty wooden. One girl I use a lot can do all kinds of tricks ‘with hers. Raising one ata time is an elemental trick that comes in handy for a whole gamut of expressions from simple inquiry to stern indigna- tion, Generally speaking, the slightly uneven brow with a slight shine toward the middle, helps to make a prety face interesting.Jon Whitcomb The face Inet f Commercial At, ne ‘medium nose Noses “The note does not contribute much to a change of expression, but it Average ote is the single most important item in a prety face, Ifthe nose is ugly, ) ‘ery lite can be done with mouth and eyes to improve the face. Not 1many people notice when noses are good, but everyone senses the effect \ ‘of a bad nose without quite knowing why. ‘The nose of a pretty git] rust not be extremely long, extremely short, or very wide. It ean turn up a little, but it had better not tur down. It should be right in the riddle and not lean to port or starboard. Some very pretty girls I have seen look fine from the front but not from che side, Or they have what's called a “good side." This is usually de tothe nose. This is fortunate for illustrators in a way. A slight ewise toa nose, ora bit of extra length to the tip and you have a character study, rather than a straight face drawing. A chiseled nose, with sharp angles, gives added age to a face; \ the young have rounded planes, with a slight tilt to the end. In gene- \ ral, the shorter the nose, the younger the girl. Noses as well as ears \, continue to grow throughout life. Old peaple have very long noses and cas, which makes it easy to indicate specified ages. Tored wp nove ym ee enJon Whitcomb The face Inset of Conmarcial Ad In. The mouth ‘The mouth of a pretty gitl is never visible without make-up, except possibly while sleeping or brushing her teeth. For a number of years, the generous mouth has won out orer the thinipped variety, and lip- stick makes it possible fora gil with either type to paint on a standard ‘mouth neither too full nor too thin. Fashions in color run from dark wine color to pale eerise, but you will find that ordinarily a bright clear red will reproduce the best in color jobs. My preference is for no shine, and it is very seldom that I like the wet-lipped appearance achieved with highlights. This means that the mouth is usually painted in rather a Decween. In smiling poses, it is necessary to indicate teeth, and it is a good plan to know how many teeth you have, how many show when you smile, and what the various shapes are. Each tooth has its own shape and length, and requires more accuracy from a dental point of view than you'd think. To make teeth look whiter, the vertical outlines are usually made rather faint. overall tone, with a darker line to indicate the contour | j |Jon Whitcomb The face Inette of Commercial At, he (s 7 es ya) Chins faa ears foreheads ‘and necks ‘The chin isa negative feature, the lack of which makes a face look weak ‘and moronic. Ifthe chin is firm and adequate, and of a good size and shape for the face, nobody will remark on it. When emphasized on a Bitl, she looks a little witellike. In young girls, the chin is rounded ‘when seen from the side; if it is gradually pointed, the apparent age Increases in direct proportion. Some chins are divided vertically down the middle with a faint cleft; this can be attractive in women if not ‘overdone, In men, of course, it is major attractive feature, ‘The classical measurement for ears is the length of the nose, when ‘measured around the head on a great circle route. I don’t care for ears ‘very much. Ears and toes defeat me. On girls, I usually draw ears a lite smaller than they should be, and pinker. They shouldn't stick out very far, naturally, unles you're trying to show a tomboy, Foreheads are supposed to denote intelligence when high —a low 1. Q when lov. Unles a girl's forehead is frankly obscured by bangs for a hat, { find that forehead height is inversely proportional to age Make ita little higher and the face seems younger. From the side, the profile should show a softly rounded line, not too slanted. Necks are another age indicator. The width of the neck, from almost, any angle, is a quick index to age. The very young have tiny necks. Increase the width slightly and you can add years to the apparent age.Jon Whitcomb The face Inte of Commercial An. In magazine ilastration, quite often the age ofa female i critically important to the sory. Not lng ago I painted an ilestration for Ladies Home Journal which speted an eleven year old git ‘The model who posed forthe picture vas ten. The editors sent back the pietre for revision because poll oftheir ofesrevesed that most people sid the younger Toke cloner to eight. Fo a dee years otis drawing required the following steps — 4 2, Letgthened her noe i Aad te er hie Added bang the han, which shortened Freed &. Lemgthened highs raed knes an aed length to calves © Made fet bigger E Widened nec (nox important change) The ilastaton blows down a6 as Bally delivered @Jon Whitcomb The face Institute of Commerce Ar ne. ‘A onde ot night. The hele i Pointed in pale yellow. opocues (ver dork ble sy color Darks fre added on. shedow edges. Hair Asa frame for the face, hair tells a great deal about the girl —the state ‘of her health (glosses), her general financial standing (high style, or lack of it), her age (up, down or windblown) , racial heritage (black, red or Scandinavian blonde) . Since hair can't very well be discussed without mentioning style factors, let's stick to the technique of render- ing itso that it looks like hair and let the fashion angles go until later. 1 don't have any fixed routine in painting hair. Sometimes I wash in the general overall color fiat and when that is dry I indicate high lights, If the girl is very blonde, Isometimes make the whole area pale yellow ‘wash and peneil in a very few darks on the shadow edge. For coal black or dark brown hair, itis only necessary to paint in the base color and add some judicious shine with opaques. The general lighting of the hhead determines the high lights. In low illumination blondes appear ‘The dark edges were pated fest ond he Blonde ‘ans blended into wel edges of ders. minimum {F inge wore added here and there To tow the Sieecton of the curves, Caller Cover. The basic wosh sight brown with high gh cedded in pole yelow. Colles Cove.Jon Whitcomb The face Intute of Commercial A he Hor the darks ware roughed in fis then the ‘err igh laminated ores ware blocked in ‘nd blended. Dark accents were added in penal and tempera, Callers Cove dark, which makes a certain amount of exaggeration necessary in night scenes, To add depth to painting hair itis necessary to fuzz or vignette the softer part of the outline, especially near the cemples where the hair blends into skin. eis a good idea to make a rough pencil sketch on tissue of the model- ing the hair will ake. Then if you start witha flat painted area of black, you will have a guide for high lights to be added last. Ifthe texture is hard, your high lights will have crisp edges. But usually you will want 1 combination of hard and soft edges. And whether you use pencil or water color on a brush, remember that the strokes follow the direction of the strands of hair. oughertechriave wed to suggest alghy sshereled lok of git in eth Mais Brown ores washed Sy thon darkest ner ip high gh added la! in pogo yo Note sofier banding near foce, herder edges in cate Reabeok lock hair pointed in fat in lompblock oy perl! ured Yo stoke in high fabs. Pate gray apanee vad to accent dork roy perch Poll Soop,Jon Whitcomb 12 The face Insitute of Comercial Ae. Light source ight ight = ‘cing modelieg of foce to Shadow down cheek ot Ia Tne down ose, ord hollow Ander ches Coumopalten, Unnecessary complicated sy of shades tnd 0 shadow side iluminated from ‘rec right Asiplerighing plan would have made this ‘rewing more succes. Cor ‘mopolion Lighting the face ‘An outline or plan drawing of a face can be dravn with a pen line Before you can show depth or roundness, itis necessary 10 know where the light is coming from, how strong iti, and whether it will have per spective. Perspective in lighting means the dilference between sunlight ingle light source 93,000,000 miles away and which will cast parallel shadows with sharp edges, and a nearby spotlight, which may be s0 close to the face that the hair may be lit from below and the chin from above, This may cast shadows with sharp edges, if itis a pin spot, or fuzzy, diffused edges if the light is broad (as for instance, the Light from f fireplace.) An illustrator frequently runs into wouble if he has to which isa Soty difuzed tight from below oF the Fah canting brightnes to chin’ ord show a figure outdoots in sunlight, but must pose his model indoors Imouh. Eyebrows but under a spotlight. Unless the spotlight is thirty or forty feet away, there ee eee tall be a fanahaped system of shadows which may reveal the lighting tisrepany.Jon Whitcomb The face Insitute of Commercial Ae. Flot ohing wih perpeciv, ine cing thot the light was ove Nese shadowed on lop chin under neath Thi effoct would bein sono. The movies have discovered that certain formulas of lighting are kinder than others to certain movie stars, There ate several actresses who must always be lit from above and straight ahead. This washes ‘out pouches under eyes, emphasizes ja lines and accents shadows from ceyelases. In drawing a face, the light source, or sources if there are several, must be established before much modeling can be done. In general, the most favering lighting is fairly fat, that seventy distribu. ted over the smooth parts of a face. Only a very fine face looks well with strong lighting from below, or from one side, In illustration, dark shadows cast upwards across faces are used anly for special mood effects, for in night scenes where the situation demands it, The simpler the lighting the more chance the features have to show expression and feeling. Lighting ftom direct font, above, in- fended nore to mphotae fac sre. tion of Gespai Shadow fom het cats {es mae of nose, doc nt intectre yes. This 0 movie trick now Widely used in close-ups. Ladies) Home Toormal Liahing fom single source ot ‘ight feck. Light poh on lft theek makes fee lok complicated re glnce, ve forgoten the Morr row, ba thought the. odd Uighting night make her look more Ike @ Tody voy. Women Home 1314 Jon Whitcomb The face Inte of Commercial A Ine. Seperoous lines, tke laugh lines and wenles, and ee reguloies of jw and nose or ignore. an “The with ofthe foce is @—— rnatrowed sgh sinco fe ie, your two yer Composite ofthe nage from both. Eyes ove roughly three inches ‘hart, 20 tht yur left ye sees litle more Sf he lot cheek, your fight eye 2 Ble more Fike ob oF tone tes. Idealizing the face ‘The face of a beautiful model goes through several changes on its way into an illustration or magazine cover. The perfect, fawless beauty is not always available for your soap ad or cigarette advertisements; and ‘even if she were, you sce her in the round, the magazine sees her in the fat he eyebrows are rote, .Jon Whitcomb The face Insitute of Commercial At ne. recestary, The rather bold nose needed refining, end defo Ihe Towikey Foling, eyes were foo dark fore color poiming. Tis wos 1 magazine cover which denonded @ foshontrevmnt, 1 wot ecided to vilize « Feklghting somewhat ciclo achave with ‘verage svdio eaipment Uke mine. The gil wor photogrephed rik snole gh! source, one S00-wotepotigh about fon fost wey athe lef Ick Imenioned. Since it overed only the igh ye ora, the pup ‘ror mode smoter ond the ins Iighterea. Both ies were sigh Crlrged he eyelashes wore pitted io ure up insted of down, ‘he mere moselngsinplied, andthe lips nage fle fo enphos ‘he fin sie. The voryangulr ear wor Sreamlined, andthe vel ‘dod to make The rather severe vel more becoming. The hang ‘ev soflened and made il flr forthe some reoton,Jon Whitcomb 16 The face Insite of Commercial At ne. Sigh snaiged, Eyslshas were acceted ond fot of hing'e mevie makeup made's Write longer” Eyebrows rated. Nove med foo forthe ereen, Beyond tat, smile, Upper and lower lige have been wie there are somethings on erst can thet o male. andthe chin mode aghy more poled Yo com {ip man contr fr sucurl changes which sate forthe forshorening whith oteus In dow improve her appeorance but do rot destoy Hr vas. Some of the nose ehd chin medsling wa tenes ‘stberatel let ot by mony peopl to be the mot beautifil women inthe ut she Is handsome fo the eye thon fo the camera, $0 svat ony igh. Bu the neck war mode inner ond the necklace shown wor made nertower Eybrows were widened a bit Since the photographed veion would have looked inadequate i a drawing. The ou tide outing ofthe hes wan cacned up ond few uenecazory wisp ef ot. Some of the chin ond nore modeling was ignored, bt the shadows cost by he cheetbones were left Uae! In der fo retatn a Uhenen, Mins Colby pored with set makeup, Inaleoon of somewhet longer eyeishes was cddedHow | make a picture seson -MeneR OF THE FACULTY OF Institute of Commercial Art, Wertport, ConectcotJon Whitcomb What makes a man handsome Inti of Commerc At, te What Makes a Man Handsome Unlike the standards for women, the standards of male charm have not altered spectacularly over the years. It is true that fashions in screen idols and magazine heroes have changed periodically as regards type, ‘bur not drastically as regards appearance. Still, here are subtle differ fences from year to year in the male faces people like to look at. Styles hhave even been set in gentlemen's faces by single illustrator, such as Leyendecker with his Arrow Collar ads. Even later, the public prefer- ence swung to healthy college types that used to be drawn by James Williamson for Ford advertisements Right now the trend seems to be toward what might be called the Wholesome Neighborhood American Boy «ype, a male who could be considered a desirable date at first glance by the younger females of ‘the magazine public. His clothes are loose and comfortable, his hair is parted on the side, his face does not show many deep lines but looks rather as though he might have a perpetual tan and play a lot of tennis, His hair is generally made dark when the girl is blonde, his chin and ‘mouth strong — not co say determined —and the planes of his face willJon Whitcomb What makes a man handsome Iestite of Commercial At, ne be frankly chiseled into the current high boned, lean look, He will almost never have a mustache, and this is where magazine heroes differ from screen heroes. Right now he prefers a belt to sus penilers, and, if he wears glasses, he carries them in his pocket. His sideburns end one-third of che way down past his ear. His eyebrows incline to the bushy side. He may have a crew eut, especially in college stories, buc under no circumstances, unless the author specifies it, is he to look as though he had forgotten to get a haircut, His forelock is likely to be unruly, and in large numbers of current illustrations a mysterious wind seems to blow it down over his eyes, even indoors (This may be out of style next year.) yes will be blue or gray more often than brown or black. The ger eral effect will more frequently be Scandinavian and blondish rather than dark and Latin looking. Don’t ask me why. Right now the most popular male type is sandy-haired, tanned, light of eye and out-doorish Teoking.Jon Whitcomb What makes a man handsome Institute of Commercial At, ne Cecented ond chin aco voted wih 0 cet Drawing « man’s face ‘The small alterations in features discussed in the previous lesson with regard to the drawing of girl's faces do not apply in drawing men’s faces. Generally spesking, getting masculine qualitis in a face involves sharpening angles rather than softening lines. rmodetng hos been cori farther hnirldrowa in wih high ght et white, shadow are of chesk and chin indicated ‘he man appeors about Meatyfve Yoort ‘old He would Be the hero Ina story ee (Ove man at fone o fy fod at ity Keeping the uy sit twenty.ve, more Here's the tome an in his senior yeor at modeling goes in. A few srokes show sin collage blond his tine, win hele @ sep Texture end @ rough progression of out: beyond @ ciew cut This makes hm look lines for nose ard cheek. Judging by the younger — possibly twenty-one The sec call, he inc young seckbroker, mavied er means he plays foatbo He sn meri two years, ves in a respectable subw, but going steady wih «dark holes gi hos one cil Aging aman ‘A commercial illustrator has to be able to hit ages on the nose. When the author says the hero is thirty-one, the illustrator must show the man {s obviously thirty-one, not twenty-six or fortyseven, Models you hire will seldom be exactly the duplicate of heroes described in the story 40 you must know how to change details so your people will look like the characters in the story. As a man gets older, the following items make the difference: Gray hair, progressing to white or none at all, hairline recedes above forehead, nose and ears become longer, bags develop under the eyes—sometimes several in terrace formation, ‘mouth less firm, color leaves lips, lines deepen in forehead, jowls or dewlaps appear under jaw, chins multiply, neck widens then shrinks in old age, collars become taller.Jon Whitcomb What makes a man handsome Insitute of Commercial At Ie Making a man’s face look younger Reverse the foregoing process and see how the years drop off. To make ‘our (wenty-five year old man Jook younger, you concentrate on the following features: More hair and a lower hairline, shorter nese, smal ler ears, no lines under eyes except possibly Iaugh lines, mouth firmer, lips fuller and with more color, smooth forehead. The rough sketch on the right shows our man as he may have looked at seventeen. Little boys To draw litte boys you accent all the features described above and make structural changes involving the skull. A small boy's head is comparatively larger above the eyes, his pupils are larger and the chin and jave lines more childish and less bold than a man's, He will have a haircut unlike a man's—sometimes cut straight across above his brows, Little boys have sinall eats and a little nose. Eyebrows are less bold chan they will be when he gets to high school. Freckles help — and most children have a few Upprenimatly he correct ages foo draniechenges were neces eSJon Whitcomb What makes a man handsome Institute of Commercial At Ie In between babies, litle girls and Girls,we have the teenager. The teenagers have their own magazines, their own language and their own clothes, This year, to show a teenager, all you have to do is draw a young lady anywhere between eleven and sixteen and put her Dobbysox, saddle oxfords and an illftting shirt- skirt combination. This age classification may show signs of being grown.up —she may be weating lipstick and nail polish or she may be frankly immature, with freckles and braids. In various parts of the country she may be clad in a man’s shirt and dungarees, a sweater with pearls or a corduroy windbreaker adorned with fraternity pins. It all depends on the state ofthe local ‘enthusiasms in mass adornment, The young lady here is taken from a story of adolescence in The Woman's Home Companion and the illustration tried to show a mental yearning to be grown-up. The same girl posed for both parts of the picuure, Babies present special problems, and most good baby artists ate specialists. This cover was painted by a nnon-baby specialist who would much prefer to tackle more elderly subjects, The child was about nine months old, wouldn't hold still for longer t fiftieth of a second and shoved all the willing co-opera: tion of a whirling dervish, Out of about a hundred photographs, most of them blurs, I got a hand here and an ear there that seemed to go together. Babies are mostly big eyes, with a small chassis hitched on behind, so the emphasis in the drawing is on the eyes, Not all babies make good! subjects for drawings, because some infants manage to look like little old people. In a drawing you must make them look like babies. The nose is just a button, the lips are fat and full (and drooling) and the checks are exaggerate. Babies don’t have wrists, just dimples, and the shoul der and ar that anatomical rules don’t mean much, This young ster, 2 boy, had somewhat more hair chan I would think a child that young might have, but I drew it that way to help minimize the enormous forehead, ‘This drawing was water color in a transparent wash, with some of the skin tones accented with colored Mongol pencils smeared with @ paper stump. ‘This ‘oumy Gos tonetenina technique i currently giving way to more solidly painted opaques, which is probably the way I would handle ie now; the transparent washes reproduce a Tittle too smoothly and seem to lack character seructure isso streamlined and unformedJon Whitcomb What makes a man handsome Insitute of Commercial At, Ine. a TT en AWERECAN FASHIONS THE WAT TOC WILL LOOK THIS FALL Cyne fipptl as Housekeeping a iW tot Inte KeJon Whitcomb What makes a man handsome Inet of Commercial Ae Ine ce aR Tat 0 44 STREET Variations ‘The sequence of story illustrations on these «wo pages is about a single character invented by Mr. Samson Ralphaclson for Good Housekeeping Magazine. There were seven short stories which told, in sequence, the life and loves of Hilda Benson,a young lady who started, ‘out a wicked woman and got reformed toward the ‘end. It was necessary to show her in the first picture as.a designing female up t0 no good. The elements I selected (o indicate this were the drooping eye (she was on the make for a new husband) , a sophisticated hhat (by John Frederics), a dyed-blonde hairdo and the pudgy hand of her male companion holding the cigarewe. Naturally the magezine wanted the girl, Hilda, to be beautiful in each picture, which limited the amount of character changes I could make in her face In the second story, Hilda went home to her middle ‘western mother, an old gal who tured out later to be even more rascally than her daughter. Hilda sec her cap in this installment for a local business man. There ‘was considerable emphasis in the text on the early Pullman aspects of the small town architecture and furnishings, so I showed Hilda leaning on a kerosene lamp, looking calculating and mean, with mama and ‘mama's gingerbread house arranged in montage across the two pages. The lefe page was full color, but the righthand page had only red and black. The house ‘was sketched in pen and ink. By the third stanza, Mr. Raphaelson had our design: ing heroine still prety fashionable with minks and jewels from previous husbands. She is shown here casually turning down a small-town swain in his ear, looking at her watch during the proposal. The models ‘were posed in the studio, and there is some doubt in ‘my mind as to’ whether it would be posible for evo people actually to get into this position in an auto-Jon Whitcomb What makes a man handsome Inaiut of Commercial Ad ine. Wy shining 8 li mobile, However, artis are allowed some license in these maicers, and you need it frequently in order to {get a story caption, a copy block and a line of blurb fon ewo pages divided by a gutter, This view of Hilda (1) was intended to show a ‘woman arrayed in a seductive rig about to go to work fon a rich man: purpose, matrimony, Hilda does not look as wicked as before. She has begun to have attacks of conscience. ‘Thisis Hilda (6), lookinganxious, about to be stood up at the church. I was experimenting with painting ‘on canvas that month. The meciium was tempera mixed ‘with casein medium, This was in full color om the left hnand page, red and black on the right. Hilda is looking less villainous all che time, as the author had become the pe 1 ou Sd Haig interested in her and was making her out to be victim of circumstance and not a bad girl at heart Married to a rich man at Inst (@), Hilda is having her troubles. Here, she visits her husband's mistres, in an attempt to make her give him up. Hilda is the one with the orchids, wrapped up demurely in a dark scarf with a few, old, last year's diamonds. The final installment (7) shows Hilda completely reformed. The husband has lest his fortune, and pre ‘sumably his mistress too; and Hilda is bravely casting her lot with him just before leaving their forty-five oom mansion, She is wearing her last chic hat, and the inference in the picture is that che two of them will go right out into all the bad weather outside the window and Start Life Anew.10 Jon Whitcomb What makes a man handsome Invite of Commercial At, Ie Zo Ve oie I Hands Next to faces, people seem to notice hands most in illustrations, and there is a widely held belief chat hands are a better indication of char. acter than faces. Even if they aren't, hands come in for considerable attention from illustrators because they appear frequently in close-ups and advertisments, Cosmetic, cigaretes, ginger ale, jewelry and liquor fare some of the products which demand expertly drawn hands some: ‘where in the picture. I worked on a hand lotion account once which used black and white drawings of luscious dames with the heads cut off s0 that hands would be the focus of attention. I'm not showing you any of these because I looked at the tearsheets recently and I was amazed that they had sold any of the product. Seemed to me the artist hadnt done very well on the hands ‘Shown on this page are three magazine covers which depend largely fon the treatment of hands to put over the story in the picture. There are certain rules to observe in drawing hands which derive partly from current ideas of what it fashionable and partly from anatomy. In draw- ing women's hands itis always necessary to accent the knuckles. Most graceful Itands in life do not have prominent knuckles, chat is, the slight bulge at the joints does not show very much, Some women's hhands are so streamlined that the bones do not show at all. In a draw- ing, this effect is not good. I looks to0 much like five bananas joined at ‘one end. In accenting the joint of a finger itis not always necessary (0 show a bulge in the outline — sometimes just a faint indication of a shadow will do it. You will notice that in some fashion drawings the [knuckles are emphasized extremely. and this is where the fashion angle ‘comes in. Joints are chic right now. In the sort of paintings that I do, however, the effect has to be minor ~ but it has tobe there. In drawing, ‘men’s hands, of course, the knuckles must be rather firmly indicated or they will look plump and pudgy ‘Nails on a woman's hands are drawn in.a fat oval, broader atthe base than at the tip, Nail polish isa great help in drawing hands, as it gives fan accent that you can't rey on ifthe nails are to be rendered au naturel ‘Then you have to go to all the trouble of suggesting moons, and indi- cating the edges of the nails without making thera look unmanicured. ‘Me, I hope red nail lacquer stays in style indefinitely. A woman's nals fare almost always stretched a bic in drawings; if che model has Long rails to start with, you lengthen them slightly anyway. There i a point beyond which they will look silly i they're ‘00 long. Only experimenta- tion will establish the outside limit.Jon Whiteom What makes a man handsome Insitute of Commercial AA, Ie 1 ‘There are lots of perfectly natural hand positions which look clumsy in a drawing, Fingers straight toward you involving foreshortening, for instance. I try to avoid poses like that. By turning the hand one ‘way of the other slightly, you can always get around it Hands holding glasses of this and that present a problem, especially in a string of advertisements like these for Canada Dry. Thete are prob- ably 8,000 ways of clutching a tumbler, but only afew which look grace: ful, look different from the last drawing and don't cover up too much of the client's product. Due to the limited space available, these hands were drawn a litle smaller han they should have been for anatomical accuracy, but the bottles on one and the flower bracelet on the other serve as camoufiage. Brightly painted nails usually show a definite shadow side no matter hhow fiat the illumination is, I don't pay much attention co this, as the ‘modeling tends to muddy the colors of the lacquer. To indicate round- ress, an elongated high light of white will furnish all the glitter nnecestary, and will reproduce much beter since the nail area is pretty small compared to the total area of the picture. In painting hands in front of faces, such as the girl experimenting with her eyebrows for Colliers, there isa critical point in establishing the hand size. Ifthe hands are coo big, the observer seems to be too close to the face, If they are 100 stall, the scene ‘ends recede, as though viewed from a great distance. In this drawing, the hand holding, the lipsticks is aboue right in size compared to the dimensions of the face. I consider that I flopped badly in drawing the other hand, which seems much t00 small. The model was photographed and this is exactly the way her hands looked; this previews a point I intend co take up later, which is: Photographs Can Be Awful Liars. In this cae, I should have lengthened the fingers holding the pencil, widened them a trifle and enlarged the back of the palm area. The reason for the photograph being offscale was that the fingers were foreshortened toward the rear, and the back of the hand bent so that it was foreshortened toward the wrist. The camera only has one eye, so it gave me what it saw. 1 have two eyes, and [ failed to compensate later in making the drawing. ON ff aS YY —_ as ‘oust Cente By ae ne Fret CANADA# DRY12 Jon Whitcomb What makes a man handsome Inout of Commercial Ate Painting skin “The first requirement Palmolive Soap made for the ads shown here was that the girls had to have peaches andcream complexions. To amplify this instruction the client also said the skin had to be kissable, sexy, smooth, adorable and clean-looking. (Better, in other words, than the skin of girls in the other soap ads.) ‘This meant no tans, no deep shadows, which meant, in earn,no strong lighting. Clothes were to be summer formal, The net effect was to give the impression that all the figures were caught during the evening enjoy ing sofe indirect light indoors and out. At fist I tried suggesting night scenes by casting deep shadows across sections of the men’s faces, but the client objected to that, They said the men use Palmolive too. Since a good many people have written to ask me how to paint skin, this might be a good time to discuss the subject, Skin, as idealized in advertisements and most story illustrations is a emooth surface,sethout shine, tinted in what I can only describe as skin color. For reproduc tion in fourcolor process, this color is a warm beige, slightly yellowish, slightly pink. 1 used to lay in skin tones in transparent wash, beginning with some yellow, some red and some burnt sienna mixed frst on & palette. Now I make it opaque, or semi-opaque, start ing with the same mixture, I use a nest of three inch gas kitchen bowls, and I try co mix up enough of the basic skin color in one of them to last through the painting of one figure ot face. If it is opaque, 1 can use it later to lighten areas where I have made the modeling too dark, Once dry, itis sometimes hard to hit « particular mixture right on the nose if you have to match it with a fresh batch. The procedure goes roughly as follows: the major outlines of the face are brushed in with a light brown wash, and the heavier shadow areas indicated and allowed to dry. The mouth js painted in. Ifthe lighting has high contrast, I like to put the deepest shadow tones in first. Then the basic skin tone goes on, ignoring any lighter areas or minor modeling. Where it runs into a soft shadow edge 1 run it right over the brown and soften the edge withJon Wh -omb What makes a man handsome Insite of Commerce A, ne water on my brush. At this stage the drawing looks like a poster, but the darkest and middle tones are established, and I will not have to do much with them, ‘The shadows are a flat brown, and if these demand ‘more attention, they ate handled now. Possibly a blue area, reflecting light, will require a blue east to a shad dow, or the shadow may have to be warmed up with pink or yellow. Or maybe the shadows will not be Drown at all, but a cold red. After this is adjusted, 1 scart putting modeling in the skin, Taking some of my basic color, I pour it in another glass bow, and darken, ie with some ofthe color I have choten forthe shadow. I may painc this in with a sable water color brush, for I may "scrub it in with an oil bristle brush. Where ‘the edges ofthis need softening, I doit with color from ry original basic batch. Not many girls wear rouge fon their cheeks nowadays, so the indication of cheek color is faint, if it is present at all. Sometimes itis enough to stroke the atea with a paper stump which has had a litle color from an orange and a red Mongol pencil rubbed into it This will also rub off unless fixed. For fixing this, I spray a very diluted clear lac- quer over the drawing. (One commercial brand is Grambacher Pastel Fixatif No, 656). This cannot be applied by a mouth sprayer. I use a large size Wold airbrush and compressor. Do not put too thick a layer of this on, as you may make the paper too slick to paint ‘on later. However, if you do (and I doit all the time) just mix a few drops of a wetting agent in with your ‘vater color, and the rouble is overcome. A rough ‘Whatman surface will not become slick easily, but the hot pressed and the smooth drawing boards in gen eral will give you some trouble if you use much fixatif. A westing agent is a chemical which makes fluids wet ter (don't ask me how) so that they will flow on any: thing. Eastman Kodak makes one under the name of Photoflo, which is intended to make developing solu tions work better, and there are others sold in art supply stores under various names like “Non Crawl.” Thave found myself completing drawings that had so ‘many layers of watercolor and lacquer on them that the final touches were just paint and wetting agent co dilute it, Your skin painting is now all set with the darkest areas, the middle tones and the major modeling fin- ished. Now come the high lights, if any. A section of the forehead may be lighter, so you take some of your original basic tone and add white. You paint this in, softening strategie edges so that your girl will look creamy. I lke 2 faint high light on the end of the nose, put on s0 that the nose has depth, but doesn’t look shiny. Too many high lights will make the git] look igreased and polished. Too few will make her look fat and suede-like. However, a suedeslike skin is just what some of the pancake cosmetics are designed to achieve, ‘A man’s skin is done approximately the same way, and in the sume order, except that the handling of modeling and shadows is less smooth and blurred, The basic skin tone, of course, will be darker, The passion for suntanned skins will make a browner skin, tone likely with considerable orange in it, Somewhat ‘more modeling will be desirable, and a little more high lighting of cheek bones and on the ridge above the brows, since a man's skin is not usually made to Took evenly powdered. The skin containing beard areas can even take a slightly bluish cast if the figure is to look more than usually virile Ears are painted with a litle pink or orange added to the color, since the skin is thin there and in most people the blood vessels are very close to the surface I like to make the lobes of girl's ears a definite pink4 Jon Whitcomb What makes a man handsome Innit of Commercial At, Ine Expressions “The human face isa very mobile affair and can be contorted by talented muscles into mugging of a very astonishing range. The gamut required fof an artist depends somewhat on the sort of pictures he has to do. ‘There are thousands of ways of showing laughing, crying, fling, screaming and pouting, but the sme sets of muscles operate in various ‘combinations to register them all A good way to study this is to mug in front of a mirror. Almost all artis resort to a study of dheir own faces in an emergency. If you study your own facial exprestions, you will find chat manipulating eyebrows, opening and closing eyes and cwisting the mouth take care ‘of most of the vatious expressions. In doing this, you will observe that various changes occur in muscle structure; in laughter, the check mus cles become more prominent and dimples may appear. In frowning, the forehead muscles are involved and will show creases. To register doubt or disbelief, some people raise only one eyebrow, and this has become a standard cliché to register skepticismJon Whitcomb What makes a man handsome Institute of Commercial At ne. a “The ae sath in hee page epee a sumer of mil ain ow ofthe moot aoe gi Here ar the dein ued eo nie the expressions: Interest Mouth slightly open, eyebrows raised. Doubt Inner corners of brows curved up, mouth narrowed and pursed Dislike Eyebrows crimped down and up, brow wrinkled, mouth shut, folds over eyes slanted inward cent fashion. Disbelief Chin raised, eyebrows raised — one more than the other, mouth equipped with faint sneer. Amusement Lips show beginning of smile, eyes narrowed, laugh line underneath. Hilarity Mouth wide open, head thrown back, long crease in cheek, eyes narrowed. In more violent poses, the muscles will be more heavily accented in other combinations. For instance, rage might show eyes wide open, showing whites all around pupils, eyebrows knit down in a U-curve, mouth open turned down at outside comers. Uncontrollable grief (don’t laugh, you might have to draw a heroine in a story who kills off, her whole family at once): eyes tight shut, tears running down cheeks, mouth slightly open with lower lip oftcenter, hand running up through Inair at forehead. This may sound corny, but any analysis of movie or stage acting would indicate the same ingredients