I have always been a black and white guy, thinking primarily in terms of values, light and shadow rather than color. So materials like soft charcoal, Conte Crayon, or black Prismacolor pencils were my tools of choice when I was learning to draw.
My parents had all the Illustrated Classics, and before I could read I was scribbling imitations of NC Wyeth, Howard Pyle and Rockwell Kent. Later on, looking at Bill Mauldin’s Army and anything by Jack Davis introduced me to what it meant to really draw the figure.
In 1972 when I started working in Chicago, art directors were casting about for black and white art that would work well in newspapers, notorious for hastily produced half tone separations and poor quality reproduction. Since line art always seemed to print well, and stipple mimicked the look of continuous tone art without the technical problems, it was a perfect solution. For the next twenty five years my work was based almost exclusively on this technique. By contrast, my more recent commissioned pieces as well as my personal work are digitally modified ink wash or pencil drawings.
Everybody has some strategy for breaking the ice. For me, humor has always the best way to get an idea across, and it would seem to be an underlying constant in my work. Over the years I have been fortunate to work with some very talented and generous art directors and designers. Our efforts have been recognized by the Society of Illustrators in NY and LA, NY and LA Art Director’s Clubs, Communication Arts, Print, Graphis, AIGA, Society of Typographic Arts, Society of Publication Designers, The One Show, Clio Awards and European Illustration.
I will be sharing my images here and I hope you enjoy them. There will be Classic Images, Current Work, Visual Essays, Sketchbooks and more. Thanks for looking!
Always been a huge fan! It was your Crate and Barrel ad in whatever year of the Illustrators Annual that got me into stipple. I was great at copying photos, but I sucked at creating original images (and my color work was second-rate too.) I loved your cartoonish work... some great conceptual stuff. I don't know if they ever told you, but now and again someone would approach me about doing a piece where I had to create the lighting, work everything out, and I'd just give them your rep's phone number. I remember one piece that was looking out the windshield from the driver's point of view onto a darkened street with a streetlamp, etc. They wanted interior dials lit up, etc. Took one look at it and bailed, told them you were the guy. Randy Glass was good with lighting too, and Bob August wasn't bad, but you had us beat all to hell.
ReplyDeleteDan Sell was my rep in Chicago. My career had cratered like a lot of people's by the mid-90's. Dan called me one day to tell me he had just been in the office of one of the creative heads at Burnett (might have been Bill Hesterberg) when this young art director came in. He had one of my promo booklets, those mini portfolios I sent out all over the country. Dan said the kid told the CD he had just found a really cool new illustrator and showed him my book. The CD kind of laughed and told him that he knew me well, but that my stipple stuff was "very Eighties" and no one used it anymore. Sigh.
Anyway, good to finally reach out to you, and glad to hear you're still drawing. I've gone over to doing all fine art. Charcoal pencil stuff, still very limited to photographic reference. But boy! it's so much easier to create textures with a charcoal pencil than a stipple pen!
Wish you all the best, Alex. ... William (Bill) Harrison, (bill@bill-harrison.com)