New Book on Austin Briggs

Austin Briggs is one of my favorite illustrators of the mid-20th century, based on what I have read about him in the Famous Artists Course and Masters of American Illustration.

So I was delighted to receive a copy of the new art book Austin Briggs: The Consummate Illustrator, published by Auad Publishing, which previously produced the books on Robert Fawcett and Albert Dorne.

Austin Briggs was born in a railroad car and raised on a farm with no books and no art. His mother never really understood him and his father and his sister died when he was young.

He came to New York as a teenager with a knack for drawing, but was so eager to get started working professionally that he skipped the chance to study in art school.

He parlayed his drawing skills into some pen and ink illustrations, but found to his dismay that art directors in the early 1930s didn't want to buy pen and ink anymore.



So he assisted Alex Raymond, a comic artist his age who had just invented Flash Gordon and other comic properties, and who needed help with the workload. Most of his contributions are uncredited.



After the war years were over, the magazines blossomed with realistic, color illustrations. Briggs went back to basics, learning the skills he would need to master color and painting.



He worked in many media, creating dramatic illustrations, car ads, and romantic clinches. They were inventive and original, and always based on solid drawing.



After the public became jaded with full color, realistic art, he shook up the illustration world by returning to his roots and doing black and white drawings. Even major advertising accounts bought into the casual look.

They look easy to do, but Briggs brought a craftsman's sense of thoroughness to the job, generating many preliminary studies and alternate versions.

Although the book is mostly devoted to high quality reproductions of the art, the introductory text is excellent, too. The book was written by David Apatoff, the author of the blog Illustration Art, and he goes into the gripping story of Briggs' life, his philosophy, and his working methods.
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Austin Briggs: The Consummate Illustrator from Auad Publishing (9 x 12 inches, hardback, 160 pages, full color, $34.95).

Briggs is also covered in a chapter of Masters of American Illustration: 41 Illustrators and How They Worked

Previous posts on GurneyJourney about Briggs

Austin Briggs's Philosophy of Illustration

(Link to YouTube)
Here's a vintage reading of a 1952 essay by Austin Briggs about the profession of illustration, from The Famous Artists Course.

This recording comes from a cassette tape which circulated among a group of friends in 1986. Please excuse the poor audio quality from this old cassette tape, as well as the male-only language of Mr. Briggs.

Topics covered by Austin Briggs
1. What it takes to be a success as an illustrator.
2. Why fun is important in illustration.
3. Avoiding formulas and injecting novelty.
4. How to improve your technical abilities.
5. Having something personal to say.
6. Developing an original approach.
7. Where to get inspiration.

Plus, readings from Henry James on the importance of experience:

"Experience is never limited, and it is never complete; it is an immense sensibility, a kind of huge spider-web of the finest silken threads suspended in the chamber of consciousness, and catching every air-borne particle in its tissue."

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Previously on GJ:
Austin Briggs's Artistic Revival, Part 1 and Part 2
Purchase the original Famous Artists Course Lessons 1 - 24
Austin Briggs Flickr set by Leif Peng
Briggs Flickr collection by Matt Dicke

Austin Briggs on Sketch to Finish

American illustrator Austin Briggs (1908-1973) says: "When working out an idea for an illustration, it is essential to keep in mind the shape of the finished painting at all times. Otherwise you are likely to develop a composition that simply won't fit the picture space."

"If you become too fond of an unworkable idea you may find it hard to start over on a new approach. The sketch above was sone quite spontaneously for a [Saturday Evening] Post cover. A momentary pose of the group suggested the compositional pattern—sort of a hammock design with the body suspended, so to speak, between the supporting figures at left and right."

"I sketched the idea with great satisfaction, thinking I had the answer to the picture problem." 

"When it came to working out the rough, however, I soon realized that this idea could not be made to conform to space requirements. It was very difficult for me to get this approach out of my head and find a design that would work. If I had kept the shape of the picture in mind from the start, I would have discarded this idea before I became too attached to it."

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From Austin Briggs' Master Course from the Famous Artists Course, 1952

Austin Briggs on Wikipedia

Thanks, Matt Dicke

The Artistic Revival of Austin Briggs, Part 1

One of the most inspiring stories of a mid-career revival came from the mid-20th century illustrator Austin Briggs (1908-1973), who told how he rediscovered painting from nature:

"Some years ago," he says, "I became very discouraged with my work. I was studying the work of other illustrators, which, in the beginning, was very helpful."

"But my own work had no individuality. Every few months as I became aware of a new illustrator's work, my style changed and not one of my pictures looked as though it was painted by me — especially the backgrounds and the landscapes. What had happened was that my ability to observe and learn from nature was dying from disuse."

"Finally it dawned on me that I should get away from the influence of other artists and work directly from nature to develop my own personal reaction to the visual world. Having decided this, I took an immediate vacation and went to the Gaspé Peninsula in Canada for four months. There I sketched any and everything — from nature."

"During my vacation on the Gaspé Peninsula, I did this painting of sailboats. While painting many pictures like this, I began to experience a very personal reaction to forms and the play of light on them. In fact, I became so interested in landscapes that they became, and still are, an integral part of my work, almost a trade mark you might say."

"Here is another landscape done after returning from the Gaspé Peninsula. By now I knew that the points of view borrowed from other artists were not suited to my temperament. Indeed they were damaging and antagonistic."

"As you can see, in this landscape I began to realize a positive and individual reaction to nature."
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Tomorrow: Part 2: What happened next.
Quoted from Famous Artists Course (1954 Edition) Lesson 16.
Austin Briggs Flickr set by Leif Peng
Briggs Flickr collection by Matt Dicke

The Artistic Revival of Austin Brigs, Part 2

Yesterday we read how Austin Briggs took time away from his busy illustration career to spend four months in the Gaspé Peninsula painting from nature. In this Part 2, he'll tell us how this sabbatical paid dividends when he returned.

"My landscapes became more alive and convincing and I knew that I was no longer dependent on other artists for a point of view. In a way, that landscape painting trip to Canada was my declaration of independence."

"While on the Peninsula I used my camera a great deal to record information which I believed I could use later. I was right as you can see here. I painted this sample illustration upon my return from Canada with a feeling of confidence. In painting this picture, I relied entirely on my personal reactions to a subject and on my stored up experience in actually observing and painting from nature."

"My studying began to pay off handsomely because many assignments I received required some landscape in the background. In doing this job for the Woman's Home Companion, I felt that I could see the actual sunlight and shadow on the men as they advanced through the jungle."

"The sky pattern in this Cosmopolitan illustration is one remembered from my Gaspé trip."

"Here is another example of the useful information you can store away in a photograph and eventually use. The shadow pattern in the photograph served as a springboard for the structure of this illustration for The Post. Notice the manner in which the figures follow this pattern. As a result, the picture appears to be 'of a piece.'"

"Here is one illustration from a serial done for The Post. The locale was Charleston, South Carolina and for a long time I struggled to illustrate the story with the help of photographs and studio props The job just wouldn't come off, so I went to Charleston and in a short time had plenty of information as well as a personal knowledge of the countryside."

"This picture was planned with the landscape of a nearby hill in mind. After I had worked out my arrangement, I moved my easel and the model to the hill and painted directly from nature. The sky is as it appeared on the day I painted it and adds much to the mood of the picture. I heartily recommend painting on location whenever circumstances permit it — particularly if the picture is predominantly a landscape. Keep in mind, however, the necessity of integrating the figures into the landscape, rather than slavishly copying the landscape as it appears.
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We'll do the Harold Speed Book Club tomorrow.
Previously:
The Artistic Revival of Austin Briggs, Part 1
Quoted from Famous Artists Course (1954 Edition) Lesson 16.
Austin Briggs Flickr set by Leif Peng

Famous artists paint Samson and Delilah

In 1949, ten members of the faculty of the Famous Artists School correspondence course were commissioned to paint their interpretation of Samson and Delilah, based on the 1949 Cecil B. DeMille production at Paramount.

The artists pictured include: (back row, from left to right) Harold von Schmidt, Norman Rockwell, Ben Stahl, Peter Helck, and Austin Briggs. (Front row): John Atherton, Al Parker, Al Dorne (on the ground, who apparently didn't contribute a painting), Steven Dohanos, Jon Whitcomb, and Robert Fawcett. 

Rockwell did a big painting of Samson pushing down the columns of the temple.

He shot reference of actor Victor Mature, and did the color study at right.

Austin Briggs showed Samson slaying a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass.

Al Parker portrayed Delilah cutting the lock of Samson's hair, thus robbing him of power.

Austin Briggs (Edit: Jon Whitcomb) also showed a romantic scene, with Delilah looking the part of a regal but dangerous female.

Harold von Schmidt, known for his dramatic action illustrations, showed Samson wrestling with a lion.

Peter Helck illustrated Samson doing the ignoble work of grinding at the mill. To my knowledge this is the only one of the ten finished paintings that has surfaced. I wonder if anyone knows what became of the others.

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Read more

Famous Artists Course available on Amazon

Watch a YouTube clip of Victor Mature (and his stunt double) wrestling the lion.

Famous Artists School on Wikipedia

Samson on Wikipedia

1949 Samson and Delilah film

Previously on GurneyJourney:

Samson and Delilah by the old masters, with a blog reader poll for the favorite (hint: the winner was Solomon Solomon)

Images courtesy the Famous Artists' and Norman Rockwell Museum Digital Collection. All Rights Reserved.

Action Poses and Photography

For much of the nineteenth century, the mental image of the galloping horse was this pose, typified by this Currier and Ives print from 1890.

As blog reader R8R mentioned this in yesterday’s comments, Eadweard Muybridge began systematically photographing running horses as early as 1877.


This began as a way to settle a bet about whether a horse really had all four feet off the ground at a single time. The photos proved that it does, but not quite in the way artists had imagined. At the moment when all four feet are off the ground, they’re gathered under the horse’s belly, not kicked out front and back.

According to the photographic evidence, the Currier and Ives picture was inaccurate, even though it was done after Muybridge’s photos were available.

Muybridge’s evidence must have been hard for artists to digest at first. Modern painters like Marcel Duchamp, to their credit, were grappling with how to capture the dynamics of action in a single painting. There’s no easy or right way to do it, despite my promise at the end of yesterday’s post.

Yesterday we looked at three paintings of people walking. All of these paintings were based on poses that a model could hold in a static position. Although Wyeth and Rockwell certainly had access to fast-action photos of people in motion I suspect that candid action photographs didn’t “look right” to them.

A lot of you commented in praise of yesterday’s paintings, and I agree. Cormon’s image has gravitas; Rockwell’s has a stateliness, and Wyeth’s a desperate urgency. But I think they’re successful despite their posing of action. Not only are the poses all the same in each picture, they're not consistent with the realism of the rest of the treatment, and I think a painting that shows an action has to be convincing not only as a singular, static image, but also as a moment in a larger conception of movement and time.

Since Muybridge, the notion of what “looks right” has changed somewhat. Most of us wouldn’t accept the standard Currier and Ives pose for running horses anymore. We accept photographic action effects, like the blurring of a moving foot, for example.

Most illustrations by the mid twentieth century that show action poses—like this advertising illustration by Austin Briggs—tended to rely on candid action photography for paintings of action scenes. As a work of art, this one is a bit silly, but clearly he did his homework and really posed models in the action.

Tom Lovell also clearly studied action photography for this painting of Alexander for National Geographic. To my eye, this painting is successful in terms of movement because it conveys both the timeless epic and the snapshot incident.

Thanks to Leif Peng for the Austin Briggs image, link.
Muybridge on Wikipedia: Main article, and assorted animated gifs.

Vintage Ads for the Famous Artists School

Here's a classic advertisement for the Famous Artists School, the correspondence course headlined by 1950s illustrators like Norman Rockwell, Al Dorne, and Austin Briggs. (Link to YouTube)



The host, Jon Gnagy (1907-1981), introduces the course, and then draws a church using basic geometric forms. Gnagy was the first person to present art instruction on television.

Man with a Shovel Sequence, Robert Fawcett, gouache on board

The Norman Rockwell Museum is currently showing original artwork from the Famous Artists School at their exhibit: "Learning From The Masters: The Famous Artists School," which will be on view through November 19, 2017.



Here's another video advertising the school. (Archival video starts at 4:51)

The Museum's artist-instructor Patrick O'Donnell will be teaching workshops based on the FAC methods. The next one is August 17.

If you want a classic set of the original binders, I recommend the 1954 edition of the Famous Artists Course, Lessons 1-24. This edition has the best artwork and instruction from the original faculty. They cost more than $400, but they're worth it.

There's a new book: Drawing Lessons from the Famous Artists School: Classic Techniques and Expert Tips from the Golden Age of Illustration  with an introduction by curator Stephanie Plunkett and Magdalen Livesey of the FAS.

Thanks, Pedram Fazeldazeh • Video courtesy Norman Rockwell Museum Archives / Famous Artists School Collection. All rights reserved.

Suit Dynamics

Men's suits get interesting when the pose moves out of neutral. I sketched the same speaker as he shifted back and forth between two poses during his talk. 

The jacket and pants hang fairly straight in the left pose. But as he put his hands in his pockets, new points of tension emerge. Folds radiate from the red arrows at the button and the hand. A long pipe fold on his pants leads all the way down past the knee. Because he lifted his shoulders, folds also radiated from his shoulders. 

In this illustration by Austin Briggs from the Famous Artists Course, the leaning-back figure has folds radiating from the shoulder seam, the knee, and the crotch. But the back is fairly smooth.

There's no substitute for drawing from the costumed model to learn these dynamics, which change not only with the pose, but also with the type of fabric and the construction of the garment.