Dean Cornwell Paints

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Here's some archival footage of American illustrator Dean Cornwell at work as he paints an illustration.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="290" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Cs7VY16nTA0" title="YouTube video player" width="480"></iframe> </div><div class="module clearfix" id="description"><div class="datawrap"></div><div class="datawrap"></div><div class="datawrap">The oil painting is from <i>The Robe,</i> by Lloyd Douglas: "And now, with a deft maneuver, Marcellus brought the engagement to a dramatic close."  Click on the image below for a very large scan of the final artwork (Thanks, Joe).</div><div class="datawrap"><br /></div><div class="datawrap"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2RP6wxLI9tdHxgbgNBQshES6-_aB72sw7wVAYoiPmzEBjUC37wf-dg__e-s8yRX15anNiSC6FyfqXVRsS775uCnzzNzGODyd-5HsBJVJXfEZ-7TjVdXlC1Q8EcUJDjI0-TDiGrIV-C3M/s1600/Cornwell.TheRobe.sm.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2RP6wxLI9tdHxgbgNBQshES6-_aB72sw7wVAYoiPmzEBjUC37wf-dg__e-s8yRX15anNiSC6FyfqXVRsS775uCnzzNzGODyd-5HsBJVJXfEZ-7TjVdXlC1Q8EcUJDjI0-TDiGrIV-C3M/s400/Cornwell.TheRobe.sm.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="datawrap">The footage was shot by Frank Reilly in 1947, part of his "Artists at Work" series. According to Reilly himself, the purpose of the film "is to impress upon us the accomplishments of those among us now and to perpetuate their memory for the inspiration of those who are to follow.” <br /><br />Thanks to Mr. Reilly, and thanks to the individuals and institutions who have preserved Reilly's legacy. If anyone knows where the original motion picture film copies are, please let me know.<br /><br /><i>Correction, March 5, 2013: </i>According to one of Cornwell's grandchildren, "Dean was actually ambidextrous and could actually paint with both hands and apparently sometimes did so simultaneously (I would guess only if it wasn't great detail). Not a lefty; an ambi."<br />-------<br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Cornwell">Dean Cornwell on Wikipedia</a></div><div class="datawrap"></div><div class="datawrap"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs7VY16nTA0">Direct link to the video on YouTube</a></div><div class="datawrap">Previously on GurneyJourney:</div><div class="datawrap"><a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2011/02/meet-harvey-dunn.html">Meet Harvey Dunn</a><br /><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_941987965"></span>Dean Cornwell in Illustration Magazine </a></div><div class="datawrap"><span id="goog_941987966"></span></div></div>

Dean Cornwell Paints

Here's some archival footage of American illustrator Dean Cornwell at work as he paints an illustration. The oil painting is from The R...

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Steel Bashaw

A new illustrated fantasy story presents the fruit of 15 years of effort by Serbian/Dutch artist Petar Meseldžija.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Py0Mn43hyphenhyphenraETRtES97E_i7j4w4hXvPZ9RJisxyTIAMwBkHpgina85gvPGPJCNQhMTjDaogbljBcGMzz3xIXzUWJnCtHrucHbA6AUXElQpaWS9bg4S5X7-kR0n7I7ZK-w9KSYrfMx5Dc/s1600/Steel_Bashaw.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518285595978333026" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Py0Mn43hyphenhyphenraETRtES97E_i7j4w4hXvPZ9RJisxyTIAMwBkHpgina85gvPGPJCNQhMTjDaogbljBcGMzz3xIXzUWJnCtHrucHbA6AUXElQpaWS9bg4S5X7-kR0n7I7ZK-w9KSYrfMx5Dc/s400/Steel_Bashaw.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 284px;" /></a>The folktale, called “The Legend of Steel Bashaw,” presents heroes, maidens, horses, and dragons—all fairly familiar stuff—but Meseldžija puts a new spin on it. He uses thick-paint impressionism, based on his plein air studies, to convey mossy forests and gnarly creatures.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMw_hTbxvP2mShgxoQ94ThsF0ONUudYmoV-4kLHgnUv_2q4lGsf1-2dx3LvOainBfcwsflvB5dkxnTFr83bkerLGHYYTTDqSPGeJYCkhyphenhyphenyaVQbvJBTEokiWQbjk5nPoYDz3iafy8tVMRT2/s1600/Steel-Bashaw.vsm.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518285593556341970" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMw_hTbxvP2mShgxoQ94ThsF0ONUudYmoV-4kLHgnUv_2q4lGsf1-2dx3LvOainBfcwsflvB5dkxnTFr83bkerLGHYYTTDqSPGeJYCkhyphenhyphenyaVQbvJBTEokiWQbjk5nPoYDz3iafy8tVMRT2/s400/Steel-Bashaw.vsm.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 279px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a>The scene of the two giants hunched over the fire of their cave kitchen is worth the $19.95 price tag. In a “making-of” afterword section, the artist shows his development sketches for the grotesque monsters. He says he “searched for inspiration among old people, beggars, drunkards, and even the mentally handicapped.”<br />------<br />More from<a href="http://www.fleskpublications.com/publications/petar-meseldzija/"> Flesk Publications</a><br /><a href="http://www.petarmeseldzijaart.com/">Petar Meseldžija.</a><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Legend-Steel-Bashaw-Petar-Meseldzija/dp/193386530X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1284826214&sr=1-1">Amazon listing</a><br /><a href="http://www.linesandcolors.com/2008/11/18/petar-meseldzija/">Lines and Colors post. </a>

Steel Bashaw

A new illustrated fantasy story presents the fruit of 15 years of effort by Serbian/Dutch artist Petar Meseldžija. The folktale, called “The...

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Wood Engravings

Until the 1880s, pictures in magazines had to be reproduced by means of carved wooden blocks. <br /><br />The best kind of wood was an end-grain boxwood from Syria. The boxwood trees were fairly small, so even the best chunks of wood weren’t much larger than a few inches in any dimension. To make a large reproduction of, say, 16 x 20 inches, you had to clamp together as many as 20 smaller blocks into a seamless whole.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_PMYrn028UZ935vGn-0WZsBrDMF3-NxtIKL_dHzHw4O5PWbcjVt4vgvpNy8f7V5ZQQpHOlJDl6AG082PbP4wdBky-hM9XQa9FKJPLY-S7YPJbccu5fNiOCTD9voToYl4l7hEh3zLi9Sez/s1600/Wood_Engraving_cottage.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5511930490414607474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_PMYrn028UZ935vGn-0WZsBrDMF3-NxtIKL_dHzHw4O5PWbcjVt4vgvpNy8f7V5ZQQpHOlJDl6AG082PbP4wdBky-hM9XQa9FKJPLY-S7YPJbccu5fNiOCTD9voToYl4l7hEh3zLi9Sez/s400/Wood_Engraving_cottage.JPG" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 262px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a>The sample above was engraved by Henry Wolf from a painting by Homer Dodge Martin, a Hudson River School painter. <br /><br />If you had a short deadline, you had to get a team of artists, each working on a separate block. A 4x5 inch block could take 12 hours or more to cut. A full page illustration could take a whole week to engrave.<br /><br />Pieces of wood were prepared by sanding them smooth, and painting them white. Then the artist drew the image in India ink directly on the block, or transferred it from a separate drawing. <br /><br />The engraver, sitting at a high table under bright light, took the artist’s drawing, and cut away all the areas between the lines.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFyJhs3MGbXV5Ar29xz6HDraAQLhc-r7RHxn0f41cVsnjXurvRB99xPDNKW_8-GIYEJDCyjjXgj_HKEh_eTA2abjefLz2grkzYY_5g8ufIfebauuDsZTfIpKW_D9SLlwfrwmq19tT0pMee/s1600/Wood_Engraving.cottage.sm.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5511930492841621778" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFyJhs3MGbXV5Ar29xz6HDraAQLhc-r7RHxn0f41cVsnjXurvRB99xPDNKW_8-GIYEJDCyjjXgj_HKEh_eTA2abjefLz2grkzYY_5g8ufIfebauuDsZTfIpKW_D9SLlwfrwmq19tT0pMee/s400/Wood_Engraving.cottage.sm.JPG" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 291px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a>A good engraver made all the difference in the final printed result. Their role was so important that engravers signed the printed piece on the opposite corner from the original artist. Relations between artists and engravers were often strained. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqZTPd3iJ0852vbQlOn3Z_dH6oHaL88wS1OmFv9rc0pcDhe2Ms9iBSi1lqr_obOPaIPhhTE7393pmHjg3RNO8CN8NVDK-DUNsik6RTwsKQEBtALN_V3Qk6-huHMK1x84Jmg5Dh7Gm1Nfm3/s1600/Wood_Engraving.sm.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5511930502639657986" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqZTPd3iJ0852vbQlOn3Z_dH6oHaL88wS1OmFv9rc0pcDhe2Ms9iBSi1lqr_obOPaIPhhTE7393pmHjg3RNO8CN8NVDK-DUNsik6RTwsKQEBtALN_V3Qk6-huHMK1x84Jmg5Dh7Gm1Nfm3/s400/Wood_Engraving.sm.JPG" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 330px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a>Engravers could use arrays of small dots and dashes to suggest textures like hair or foliage. The detail above created by Timothy Cole, who did a whole series of interpretations of French painters. This one is based on Jules Delaunay. <br /><br />Note the soft tonal transitions around the eyes and the mouth, the sensitive changes in line direction, and the delicate white specks even in the darkest darks.<br /><br />The samples in this post were published in Century magazine in 1909, well after the photographic halftone process had become established.<br />-------<br />Some of this information is based on the book “Great American Illustrators” by Susan Meyer.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right; width: 480px;"><br /></div>

Wood Engravings

Until the 1880s, pictures in magazines had to be reproduced by means of carved wooden blocks. The best kind of wood was an end-grain boxwood...

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Stout’s Hallucinations

Flesk Publishing has just released a new collection of artwork by William Stout called “Hallucinations.”<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjxqscLjiDC7nXwFUTzPHUnF_HazdCVGeelkbeY9BecDmsB6TgwuouGLwpTRPepkHMRWagjFEZTNQGJUhEigV7CiHxmLWjCxGCD0jzI2xmwjrlhVR0noGzvgdaFzfuFerlumRZAQPD1zt8/s1600/Stout.Hallucinations.Flesk.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493831459631028882" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjxqscLjiDC7nXwFUTzPHUnF_HazdCVGeelkbeY9BecDmsB6TgwuouGLwpTRPepkHMRWagjFEZTNQGJUhEigV7CiHxmLWjCxGCD0jzI2xmwjrlhVR0noGzvgdaFzfuFerlumRZAQPD1zt8/s400/Stout.Hallucinations.Flesk.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 276px;" /></a>This is the first of two 48-page softbound collections of Stout’s watercolor and ink artwork. The subjects include dragons, genies, and witches, as well as scenes from Oz and Aesop. The penwork is ornate, intricate, and sometimes whimsical, with smaller details and subordinate characters adding levels of fascination to the pictures. <br /><br />In the introduction, Stout credits the inspiration that he draws from the early 20th century children’s book illustrators, especially Edmund Dulac, Arthur Rackham, John Bauer, and William Heath Robinson. <br /><br />This is the first of a two related volumes. The next one will feature women and wonders, and will be called “Inspirations.” <br /><br />There is also a signed hardbound edition, limited to 500 copies, which is almost sold out. <br /><a href="http://www.fleskpublications.com/"><br />Flesk Publications </a><br /><a href="http://www.williamstout.com/">William Stout official site.</a>

Stout’s Hallucinations

Flesk Publishing has just released a new collection of artwork by William Stout called “Hallucinations.” This is the first of two 48-page so...

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Starrigger

When Berkley books asked me to design the ultimate monster truck, I scaled up a lot of features of trucks that I liked. The book was called “Starrigger” by John DeChancie.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_U_sNVGt-ndUaqGPDYAWn5TjS-hcgvVMAhgBakfuzqB58aPNL1rexRayYW8m85vTeTh7b7G-M-YxqujGBV2aYvF2A8pHcF0BWtfIfAf5uyXjcswOwE8Oz6zHfz6JKKKn8iBgk4Wm85vmP/s1600/StarriggerGurney_BerkeyTx.Jim.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5486653190429216242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_U_sNVGt-ndUaqGPDYAWn5TjS-hcgvVMAhgBakfuzqB58aPNL1rexRayYW8m85vTeTh7b7G-M-YxqujGBV2aYvF2A8pHcF0BWtfIfAf5uyXjcswOwE8Oz6zHfz6JKKKn8iBgk4Wm85vmP/s400/StarriggerGurney_BerkeyTx.Jim.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 320px;" /></a>I imagined a giant vehicle that could make long runs across a planet that was basically a huge dry lake bed. When the sequel assignment came along, I was unfortunately too busy to take the job. But I was delighted that one of my heroes, John Berkey, received the commission. His painting, for “Red Limit Freeway” closely followed the design I came up with.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYem-ZQBmu2Itagx4QUklnM-x7KtrSjrmAWuJQrGcfNA1ymQPp8x8oKcpTt0g7LV5HUMwb-FRZWebIB6V9u2OeorgoZxS85nz3FBk5CuF0yOH3UMfW1GHbW5cuj-ZvnoUqJ3rkkjTg8mln/s1600/Paradox_Alley_Gurney.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5486654353717464002" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYem-ZQBmu2Itagx4QUklnM-x7KtrSjrmAWuJQrGcfNA1ymQPp8x8oKcpTt0g7LV5HUMwb-FRZWebIB6V9u2OeorgoZxS85nz3FBk5CuF0yOH3UMfW1GHbW5cuj-ZvnoUqJ3rkkjTg8mln/s320/Paradox_Alley_Gurney.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 300px;" /></a>I was able to find time to do another sequel cover called "Paradox Alley," which shows the truck going off a cliff and the driver flying out in an ejection seat. That oil original is in the collection of Art Center College of Design. <br /><br />See a lot more Berkey's at <a href="http://pinkoski.com/Articles/John-Berkey-Artwork.html">Jim Pinkoski's website.</a>

Starrigger

When Berkley books asked me to design the ultimate monster truck, I scaled up a lot of features of trucks that I liked. The book was called ...

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