I've said some unkind things here about cross hatching-- those intersecting lines that are used to add tone to a drawing. Artists who aspire to something higher use line more descriptively, to add dimension, contribute vitality, describe form, or make some other kind of artistic statement.  Cross hatching, like stippling, is the kind of busy work that might be delegated to an apprentice, or even replaced by zipatone. To illustrate my point, look at what the brilliant Joseph Clement Coll did where lesser artists might have used cross hatching. Compare the vigor in these details ..read more

I love this drawing by Frederic Gruger of a confrontation between a Russian princess and a group of leering Bolshevik invaders. Gruger was famous for making paintings from nothing but a Wolff pencil, cheap cardboard and spit. (Later, when he began to make money he graduated from spit to wash.) While Gruger's illustrations were striking for his ability to achieve a rich velvety tone, he also knew how to draw with a pencil point: Gruger staged his picture with all kinds of perfect details and lighting.  Here is an artist who was firmly in control of the room. But the feature I ..read more

This drawing by James Montgomery Flagg is as confident and brash as Flagg himself. The drawing is large-- nearly 30 inches (76 cm) and appears to have been drawn mostly from the elbow. Like Franklin Booth, Flagg created values with numerous parallel lines:   However, unlike Booth, Flagg used bold lines, aggressively combining pen and brush.  Booth carefully planned his drawings, but you can see from Flagg's pencil lines how loose and fluid his preparations were. This is not digital drawing.  You don't see much like it these days.    ..read more

Franklin Booth (1874-1948) learned to draw by studying wood engravings in magazines while he was growing up on a farm in Indiana.  He mistakenly thought the engravings had been created with pen and ink, and so developed his highly unusual drawing style simulating engraving lines. I usually prefer drawings with a more direct and expressive line, as opposed to  clusters of lines used to create values.  There always seems to be more painstaking effort than necessary in Booth's drawings.  Still, when you look at extreme closeups of what Booth accomplished, you have to respect ..read more

 The popular arts were never exactly subtle about the roles of men and women: Flash Gordon by Alex Raymond Prince Valiant by John Cullen Murphy Prince Valiant by Hal Foster But words are only one small part of an illustration.  The non-verbal part-- the lines and colors-- can have a gender orientation as well.  In the 1950s, illustrator Albert Dorne was commissioned to illustrate a story for Cosmopolitan magazine. The story involved a barn that burns down at night, a cow, and a boy and girl being confronted by crooks.  Dorne turned ..read more

There's a long tradition of wars with-- and about-- ink:  (The Ink Battle by Utagawa Kuniyoshi 1843) Ink has left a trail of rivalry, braggadocio, hostility and sometimes just general commotion. Ink as a weapon can be flung, spattered and scrubbed; it can be a tool for slapstick and a tool for marking rivals with an indelible stain.   (Toshikage, 7 Gods Fighting with Ink, 1888) (The Ink War) There's no denying the yang in ink. Even when it's not literally ammunition, it frequently serves as metaphorical ammunition. It settles scores.  It inflic ..read more

There's a long tradition of wars with-- and about-- ink:  (The Ink Battle by Utagawa Kuniyoshi 1843) Ink has left a trail of rivalry, braggadocio, hostility and sometimes just general commotion. Ink as a weapon can be flung, spattered and scrubbed; it can be a tool for slapstick and a tool for marking rivals with an indelible stain.   (Toshikage, 7 Gods Fighting with Ink, 1888) (The Ink War) There's no denying the yang in ink. Even when it's not literally ammunition, it frequently serves as metaphorical ammunition. It settles scores.  It infli ..read more

 "To live is to war with trolls." -- Ibsen Anthropologists tell us that primitive cultures believed art had supernatural properties. Prehistoric tribes thought that striking a drawing of an animal on a cave wall would give them luck in the hunt.  Diorama from the Field Museum in Chicago Apotropaic images were believed to contain protective magic. Ancient Egyptians believed that images had the power to connect them with the gods, and that carvings in tombs would come alive in the afterlife.    They also believed that a person would be destroyed if his cartouche ..read more

I like Tomi Ungerer's drawing about the nature of men and women: The lines may appear light and slapdash, but the ideas have genuine weight.  It's an excellent example of conceptual or “idea” art, which transformed the field of illustration in the latter part of the 20th century.  This type of art abandoned the traditional, literal approach to picture making in favor of visualizing ideas using metaphors, symbols, visual puns and word play.   The great Saul Steinberg said, "drawing is a way of reasoning on paper."   Steinberg explains, "The vulnerable ..read more

"To live is to war with trolls." -- Ibsen The United Nations Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space strictly forbids "harmful contamination of space and celestial bodies." It explicitly prohibits placing weapons of mass destruction in outer space. Despite this prohibition, sculptures by marketing con artist Jeff Koons landed on the moon yesterday in the NASA-funded moon lander Odysseus.  Koons now crows that he created "the first authorized artwork on the moon."  As if this act of extraterrestrial vandalism wasn ..read more