Monday, February 23, 2009

Assignment: A poster done in ink line and color

Around 1997 my old friend Tom Clarke ended up in Las Vegas where he was working for Ron Bell Associates as the art director. Among other things, the agency was doing the advertising and promotion for the Glory Hole Casino in Denver, Colorado. I got a call from Tom one day, he needed a poster done for the casino, it turned out to a great assignment. Below is the rough sketch that he faxed me, we didn't have computers at the time.

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Above is the first rough sketch I did to see if I was on the right track. After faxing it to Tom we had a couple of discussions on the phone and the direction became a bit clearer. I did a new quick rough sketch and he agreed that it was now working pretty good.

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Below is the tighter pencil sketch which was faxed to him very early in the morning. If I remember correctly, we were on a tight deadline schedule and I had to get started on the art before he saw the new revised sketch. Tom would be calling me when he got in the office at 9 AM Las Vegas time to give me his final OK on the new sketch.

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The finished pencil sketch for the poster.

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Some detailed drawing I did of the various figures.

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The finished art was done using a crowquill pen and brush with India ink on illustration board. This actually was the last ink line art assignment I did. I specialized in this type of art for about 40 years.

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A film positive was made of the art and the color was painted underneath on illustration board, the same process that we used to use when illustrating Chevrolet ads years before. Incidentally, I did a great deal of work for Tom when he was art director on the Chevy account at Campbell Ewald in Detroit.

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The final printed poster.

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Recently I adapted part of the original ink drawing to create this comic book cover parody. This was done on the computer as are my other parodies in this series of limited edition prints.

6 comments:

Rafa Garres said...

Your art is excellent,expontaneus,
fresh,energic.I´m following back your carer and I´m learning a lot from you.

Harry Borgman said...

Hi Rafa,
Thank you for checking out my blog and for you comments. I looked at your bogs and enjoyed your work as well. I especially like your color sense. Keep up the good work !
Harry

albi(francesca perani) said...

fantastic drawings i simply love the style and the power of your ink traces

Rafa Garres said...

I really celebrate you like my art.Actually I�m more focused on ink line drowing.I will buy some of your books as soon as I can.I�m
sure to learn alot with them.
What kind of pen or quill do you use to draw that astronaut drawings?Is it real indian ink?
I�m building a big file with all your art I found.
I enjoy it.
R

Harry Borgman said...

Hi Rafa,
Most of my books are out of print but you can easily find used copies on the internet, try Amazon.com or just put my name in Google. For many of my ink line drawings and outdoor sketches I usually use a technical pen which is filled with India ink. To see more of my work, check out my website: harryborgman.com
Harry

Rafa Garres said...

I know all you google files.
Also,I just looking for the
faster and more confortable
inking way with iondian ink,
to get your final "touch".
Thanks!