Despite the growing efficiency of cameras in the nineteenth century, photography on the battlefield was difficult due to long exposures and cumbersome equipment. Because of this, Civil War illustrator reporters like Winslow Homer, Alfred Waud and Edwin Forbes were engaged to capture events that photography at the time could not. In the twentieth century, wartime illustrators remained in demand⸺as skillful practitioners they were able to prioritize in chaotic situations and assemble compelling visual evidence that communicated to viewers in a visceral way.

How did artists like Norman Rockwell, Austin Briggs, Jon Whitcomb, and others create the believable unique faces that can tell a whole story by themselves? In a magazine cover, like those by Rockwell and Stevan Dohanos, the image, with its setting and, most of all, its characters, must convey an anecdote without any help from words. So each face must be carefully crafted to do its part in creating the drama⸺or comedy.

In How I Make a Picture by Al Parker, he wrote about his creative process for magazine story assignments. The artist’s first step was to read the manuscript while keeping the target audience in mind. As characters entered into the tale, he jotted down their descriptions – hair color, eyes, age, type of clothing, disposition, etc. He also searched the narrative for a passage that would catch the reader’s attention; he termed this the “stopper”. Parker’s final tip on successful illustrations was understanding the mood of the piece. Is it romantic, humorous, suspenseful, or tragic?

If you want to observe an artist at work, a good place to start is with his or her sketchbooks. Here are ideas, techniques, observations, memories – all the underpinnings of the finished work. Often the contents are so free and spontaneous that they draw us in, wanting and needing nothing more than these simple lines on paper.

This week’s subject allowed me to delve deeper into a recent acquisition by Harold von Schmidt, a student of the accomplished illustrator Harvey Dunn. Curious about the imprisoned man in “I have had the liberty of speaking through the hold of door to my wife and servants, his editorial read,” I performed a web search for the December 1934 issue of The Elks Magazine, to find out more. Luckily, the magazine was digitized.

Though not well known to the public, Albert Dorne (1904-1965) was the highest paid illustrator of mid-twentieth century. He strongly supported the field of illustration by serving as the Society of Illustrators president and by co-founding the Code of Ethics and Fair Practices of the Profession of Commercial Art and Illustration. He mentored and helped other people achieve their dreams of becoming paid artists with the establishment of The Famous Artists School, a correspondence course for commercial art. Over the years, this savvy businessman earned the respect of his industry.

Collections Hunters: Uncovering the Museum’s Art and Archival Collections

A strong admirer of the artists Edward Hopper and Charles Burchfield, Stevan Dohanos created artwork reflecting the style of American Realism. His pictures are filled with common objects, preferably man-made, that are easily recognizable to people. This popular subject matter lead him to produce 123 covers for The Saturday Evening Post. Dohanos’s images captured the locations and trapping of the American dream, not those who populated it, the focus of Norman Rockwell’s work. He took inspiration from everyday scenes found around his home in Westport, Connecticut, offering only glimpses of its residents.