Happy New Year !

Holiday Greetings

Over 40 years of storyboards

Another group of frames from a storyboard series done for a Chicago ad agency. Over the years I have done thousands of these frames for ad agencies in Detroit, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Pittsburgh and even in Paris and Vienna.




Never missed a deadline, came close though, a couple of times.

Ah, the smell of markers

Another batch of storyboard frames done for a Chicago ad agency, I can't remember which one. From 1996 through 2004 I did a lot of work out of Chicago through my rep Bob Fischer, my main clients being FCB, Cramer Krasselt, Lois Chicago and A. Eicoff & Company. I occasionally got assignments from several other Chicago agencies. It was a busy time for me as I also had active clients in New York and Detroit.






These renderings were the usual 5 x 7" size done with markers on high quality layout paper and, of course, had a tough deadline.

Layout rendering techniques book

In my last few posts I have shown a lot of marker renderings done for advertising. In case you have an interest in this area of commercial art, I wrote a detailed instruction book on the subject in 1983 covering all phases of this part of the business. ADVERTISING LAYOUT TECHNIQUES is long out of print but you can easily find copies on the internet at places like Amazon.com. The book is full of information on rendering storyboards, ads, catalog and brochure design as well as the the tools to use.






The two above layouts are from an American Motors Renault catalog that I designed while living in Paris. The assignment came from the Wayne Alexander Company in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, an ad agency that I did a great deal of work for before to moving to Paris. Wayne frequently brought assignments over to me in Paris and enjoyed a vacation while I cranked out the work, he was a great client.


One of a series of ad comps that were done for a French ad agency. The sketch at the top was done by the art director to show me what he wanted in the final comp rendering.
Even seasoned rendering artists will probably get a kick out of ADVERTISING LAYOUT TECHNIQUES as quite a variety of assignments are discussed in detail.

More storyboards for Y & R NY

Another group of storyboards done for one of my best New York clients Y & R, the Art Director was Michael Brenecke. Again, these are all rendered with markers on high quality layout paper. To get good results you must use the best materials and be able to work well under the pressure of the ever present deadlines.






I enjoyed this assignment and had fun with the lighting and color, keeping the sequence dramatic.

Storyboards for Delphi

A series of storyboards done for Wayne Graydon, Art Director at McCann Erickson in Troy, Michigan. It was a fun assignment to do, most likely had the usual tough deadline.


These frames were all rendered with markers on high quality layout paper, I think they measured 5 x 7 inches.

Time is the enemy

Here are a few frames, part of a larger group that were done under the stress of an overnight deadline. The deadlines are actually good in a sense, they taught me discipline and how to plunge in and work when I least felt like it. Discipline is something all artists need, especially in the fine art field, no one is going to force you to paint or experiment, this is something that is up to you, artists must be self motivated.


On this assignment I hardly had time to do sketches, you can see how loosely done these preliminary drawings are.


The drawings, as loose as they were, still worked out well as underlays for my final renderings. Most Art Directors will forgive your looseness considering the time limitations, as they appreciate your efforts to have something for them to show their client at an early morning meeting.

Twelfth painting in my new series

Here I have drawn the image on a 30 x 30" canvas with a Design Art Marker pen. I did several computer sketches for this painting and have taped a couple of them to my drawing board.


I begin as usual by painting in the background. This color may change as I cover the blank canvas with the other colors.


Here I paint the figure shapes in.


Other colors are then painted in, gradually building up the painting.


The colors go through quite a few changes before COY NUDE is finished. A darker purple worked much better on the figure shapes and the black shapes help the overall design a great deal. I don't actually just duplicate my original sketches, but use them only as a starting point for these paintings. Most of these paintings can be seen at the Craig Smith Gallery in Harbert, Michigan. Craig took COY NUDE to his Oak Park, Illinois gallery

More ad comps

I used to do tons of ad comps when I was taking advertising assignments. These usually still had tough deadlines,were larger and had to be rendered tighter than storyboards. These always came in a series and frequently had overnight or weekend deadlines as well.







I don't recall the ad agencies or Art Directors on these assignments but each one was part of a series of several ad comps. The first one was done for a Chicago ad agency and the others were done for New York agencies.These were all done using markers on high quality layout paper. For best results I use Bienfang 360 layout paper, but I use the reverse side as the markers work much better on that side.

Today's the day !

Don't forget to attend the charity event that several local galleries are having today in Michigan's Harbor Country.




Gloria, a Mary Kay representative, will be there with cosmetics and you can also see her book "50 Ways To Find Romance After 50" as well.

Painting over an old painting

I ran out of canvas and wanted to get started on one of my new paintings and decided to paint over an older painting titled SUDAN. This painting was commissioned by someone when I lived in New York. They never paid me for it so I took it back.


I liked the shapes and colors in SUDAN and retained some of the original in this new work titled SWEET PURPLE NUDE. Craig Smith, my gallery owner, had misread the original title, SEATED PURPLE NUDE, and I liked his title better, so I changed it.


If you study these images you will see that many of the shapes and colors in the original work were retained in the new painting. It's not unusual for artists to paint over older paintings, I've done quite often. This new series is on display at Craig's gallery presently.



Several area galleries are having a charity event tomorrow and here are a couple of posters I designed for the Craig Smith Gallery who will be featuring some of my new paintings. Gloria will also have a table at Craig's displaying her Mary Kay cosmetic line as well as her book "50 Ways To Find Romance After 50".



If anyone out there is interested in knowing more about Gloria's book, you can contact her at romanceafter50(at)sbcglobal(dot)net.

Burning the midnight oil

More frames from the Lincoln Mercury storyboards done for Y & R in Irvine, California.


Many of these frames had automobiles in them and because of the tough deadline, I could not add details such as highlights and chrome trim as I usually do with white paint.


No reference for the cars was supplied by the agency, luckily I found a few images on the internet that helped a great deal. Sometimes I've even gone to a car dealership and taken reference photos.






This was a fast and furious way to spend a weekend, I did manage to meet the deadline, the time difference between California and Michigan helped a bit. The only way to handle an assignment like this is to keep the renderings loose and fresh, they all must be of the same quality. You can not start out with very tight renderings and do loose ones at the end, the frames should be uniform. ....AND you can't miss the deadline !!!

Cranking out storyboards

Storyboards are usually done under adverse conditions like a terrible deadline. An artist develops a reputation for meeting deadlines as well as interpreting the script in an interesting way. Often, because of time restraints, the renderings must be done fast and loose. These examples are part of a series that I did for Y & R in Irvine, California. I had to do 65 frames over a weekend.


One of the problems with this assignment was that I had to find specific reference for many of the frames which takes up a good deal of time.


A close up of the statues at Grand Central Station in Manhattan. I had no time to spend on these frames, you can see how loosely they are rendered.


The eagles on top of the Chrysler building.


This assignment was for an automotive client, Lincoln Mercury and also had a lot of automobiles in it to render which complicated things even more. In my next post I'll show a few of those frames. I don't recall the Art Director's name, but he was very good to work with.

Tough storyboard assignments

Some of the toughest and most demanding storyboard assignments one can work on are the automotive ones. Even though boards are quickly rendered because of deadline considerations, the product must be done fairly accurate. Often the ad agency does not provide photos of the cars, complicating things further because you must find reference material which takes away from your rendering time. The Art director may also want to see pencil sketches before you start rendering the frames.


An example of one of my rough sketches which I place under a sheet of layout paper and trace for the final rendering.


One of many storyboards done for Subaru while I lived in New York. My many years of working in Detroit was a great help for me when doing automotive storyboards. I don't recall the ad agency or Art Director, but suddenly one day they closed shop and I lost a good client. Anything can happen in the ad biz.

Happy Thanksgiving Day !!!

Living with deadlines

Tough deadlines are a way of life for the storyboard artist. A lot of the time my assignments wouldn't come in until Friday with the usual Monday AM deadline. I would have the whole week to pursue my fine art interests. Other times I would work all week and have the weekends free. All this must sound very familiar to all of you storyboarders out there. With the crazy schedules in this field you must work well under great pressure and be relentless in your other pursuits. here are a few more examples of my black and white storyboard frames, part of series done for Doner in Southfield, Michigan.














On many occasions you would also have a batch of ad comps to do in addition to the storyboards. Sometimes you wondered how you ever made the deadlines, I'm sure the Art Directors wondered also.