Storyboard & comp promotions

More example of the promo pieces that I would send to various art directors.



Bob Fischer represented me in Chicago for many years and these are promo pieces that we sent out or that he delivered in person. These pieces always showed examples of storyboards as well as ad comps.



Bob still had sample books to show the art directors, but these printed pieces usually were sufficient.



This one is more of a poster and when hung on the art director's wall others couldn't miss it.



The important message here is FAST. Ad comps and storyboards always seem to have short, often ridiculous deadlines. It's a real challenging area of the ad biz, if you don't work well under extreme pressure, forget it ! The above illustration was rendered on tracing paper rather than on the regular layout paper, creating some interesting effects.

Some storyboard and comp promo pieces

When I was specializing in storyboards I used to send out a lot of promotional material. I preferred this method rather than sending things over the internet because the art directors would tack these pieces on their walls. I simply got more exposure that way as other art directors in the agency would see my promo pieces. The art directors would also have examples to show a client or the Creative Director if necessary.



My renderings were all done using markers because of the tough deadlines, this was the fastest method for me to use. I enjoy painting watercolors and rendering with markers is quite similar. Also, many art directors like the clean, fresh look of a marker sketch.





This piece promoted the fact that I could deliver comps, storyboards and even Animatics over the internet.



Sending them an impressive client list is also important, it gives one a lot of credibility and reassures them that you're a professional that can handle tough deadlines.

More of my final automotive catalog illustrations

The rest of my final automotive catalog illustrations. Again, I don't remember the art director, ad agency, the year or which car this was done for. I was freelancing at the time and Prucher Studios in Detroit called me in to do this assignment. Most of the car catalogs were starting to use photography in the mid '60's marking the end of an era.



An illustration with a zoo theme, my wife and the neighborhood kids posed for me.



A scuba diver in a wonderful tropical setting. I'd like to be there right now, Winter is in full swing here in Michigan and it's been miserable so far, some freezing rain and lots of snow ! I used my wife's best friend, Dorthy, as the model in this illustration. I don't remember who the guy was, probably one of my artist buddies.



The excitement of auto racing was the theme of this illustration. The models were Cathy and Dorthy.



Air travel and a cute hostess, again, my student Cathy was the model. These illustrations were all painted with acrylics and were in full color.

My last automotive catalog illustrations

This series of illustrations were the last that I did for automotive catalogs. The ad agencies were using more and more photography and the automotive catalog illustrator was a dying breed. For these images I didn't have an actual catalog or art to scan, only small black and white reproductions from a promotion piece that I did. Nor do I remember the art director, ad agency or the name of the car. It's likely that this was done for the Oldsmobile ad agency, D. P. Brother. It must have been around the late 1960's when I was teaching because I used one of my students, Cathy Baylog, as the main model in the above illustration. If anyone out there has any idea of what car or year this might be, please let me know.



I probably was freelancing at the time as Prucher Studios in Detroit called me in do these illustrations. This assignment was a lot of fun to do, I enjoy creating these types of compositions. I must have just left Al Hutt's studio to freelance again. The girl in the foreground was the receptionist at Hutt's and just behind her is Terry Smith, an automotive artist that I used frequently as a model. My children as well as neighborhood kids posed for me as well.



Another illustration that was fun to compose. My wife Jeanne modeled for this illustration. She had modeled professionally for years in Detroit. For the male model I used one of my students.

More Detroit Free Press art

Major Detroit was a comic strip that I occasionally drew for the Detroit Magazine. I couldn't find any examples of the strip but did find the original art that was done for the cover illustration of the magazine. The art is an ink line drawing with color washed over using dyes.



I illustrated a story on Onassis which appeared in the regular edition of the newspaper. These were ink line drawings over which gray tones were added.





Another ink line and tone illustration done for the Detroit Magazine.

Art for the Detroit Free Press Magazine

The Detroit Free Press decided to do a story on one of my students, Edith Nagy from Hungary. They asked me to do this cover painting of her. I was starting to do story illustrations as well as covers for the Sunday magazine. At the paper I dealt with Mort Persky and Bill Baker, who was the Sunday Editor and really enjoyed working with them. I've lost touch with Bill but Mort and I have become good friends over the years and still keep in touch.



I don't recall the story behind this cover, there was probably an air show in the Detroit area.



This cover art illustrated a few children's stories that were printed in the magazine.



A popular summer event in Detroit was to take a cruise on the Bob-Lo boat, fun was had by all ! Here is a cartoon rendition of the boat on the Detroit River.

Sketching in the tropics

Often when traveling I bring along a sketchbook to record certain scenes. It seems that you get a much better feel for a new locale by careful observation and drawing rather than by viewing everything through a camera viewfinder. Also it's a fun thing to do and you meet some interesting locals as well. In 1966 my wife Jeanne and I took a belated honeymoon trip to Grenada and Surinam. Grenada is a beautiful island in the Caribbean and Surinam is a country situated on the top of South America between Guyana and French Guiana. The above photo was taken just after a wonderful breakfast at our hotel.



A sketch of beautiful Grand Anse Beach was made from the balcony adjoining our room at the Grenada Beach Hotel. I frequently use a mechanical pen with waterproof ink to do my basic sketches on watercolor paper, then the tones are added using a Pentel Sign Pen. To complete the sketch I add washes of clear water over the Pentel tones.



Overlooking the harbor at St George's, Grenada. This sketch was done from a vantage point just below Fort George. The school boys had come up the hill to watch the tourists being shuttled in from the S.S. Oceanic by motor launch. Grenada is a very lovely destination which we enjoyed a great deal.



Our next stop was Paramaribo, Surinam, an interesting town with a Dutch flair. Here is a sketch of the harbor.



We wanted to visit French Guiana and traveled from Paramaribo to Albina which is just across the Maroni river from St. Laurent, French Guiana. Here is the interior of our hotel, the Tjon Siem Kie, an interesting place, which in spite of being nearly on the equator, still had cool breezes flowing though it. We dined here on a lovely meal of Indonesian food. The lady that ran the hotel was not only very gracious, but a wonderful cook as well.



A sketch of some old buildings in Albina. I left off the TV antennas and some of the group that was watching me complained as they were proud that they had television.



One of the beautiful old buildings in St. Laurent-du-Maroni. Years ago, this place and nearby Devil's Island was the infamous penal colony where many French convicts were sent.



We traveled down the Maroni river to the Bush Negro village of Onekai, located in Surinam. This is a sketch of the Captain of the village and the local drum maker. These people are the descendants of slaves that escaped into the Surinam jungles. The residents were all very curious about my interest in sketching in their village.



Our boatmen, or more correctly, our boatboys, seemed to enjoy watching me sketch in Bigistone, an Amerindian village.



One of the residents climbed a palm tree and brought us coconuts so that we could refresh ourselves. The boy with the machette cut them open for us.



This a typical hut in the village of Bigistone with it's characteristic open sides.

1963 Chevrolet announcement ad.

In 1962 I was freelancing in Detroit with Jack Mills, Del Nichols and Jim Jackson. This ad was assigned to us by Jim Bernardin, head art director on Chevrolet at Campbell Ewald. Jack Mills rendered the Chevrolet and the Chevy II, either Jim Jackson or Del Nichols drew the figures. I did the the illustration of the Corvair including the figures.




Wow, NO seatbelts !
These close-ups show the details of the illustration more clearly. As I mentioned previously, these illustrations were thoroughly scrutinized by the Chevrolet engineers to make certain the art was correct in every detail. They even would count the air slots on the hood near the windshield ! Artists had to keep the engineers in mind as part of the problem in meeting the tough deadlines. On this illustration I used my wife and children as models. By the way, all those road lines were ruled in with a brush, a tough rendering job as you can imagine.



We also had to do black and white versions of this art. The art was drawn in ink line from which a film positive was made, which was positioned on illustration board. The color or gray tones were then painted underneath while frequently checking the results by positioning the film positive over the painted areas. It was a complicated process but it resulted in very good reproduction, especially on newspaper stock. Thanks to Dave Newell, Chevrolet historian, for sending me copies of this ad. If you are interested in seeing other old Chevrolet ads, check my LINKS and go to Jim Bernardin's blog, ABOUT OLD CHEVY ADS.

I wore many hats at Ward's Quarterly

I really enjoyed working as art director on Ward's Quarterly having pretty much a free hand with the design and art of the publication. Actually, it was a perfect outlet for me, being a graphic designer as well as an artist that works in various techniques. Morley Driver, the Detroit Free Press art critic was the Editorial Director and she encouraged and backed me in the direction I was taking. From an artist's point of view it was a dream job. Often on the inside covers I would do a special design or try a new concept such as the collage below. At the time this was unheard for magazine design as normally ads run on these pages.


This collage was done by cutting and pasting various photostats of auto parts together. Today a design like this would be much easier to create on the computer.



These spot drawings were for an article on American Motors international expansion. The drawings were done in ink on scratchboard, a coated illustration board that allows you to scrape lines on your drawing with a special tool. This technique is very effective for small line drawings. Being saddled with a limited budget I did most of the magazine's artwork often under different names, these were signed Albert Friday.





Some of the many cartoons that I drew for the magazine under the name Manfred Bochum.



Above are some realistic ink sketches drawn with a brush.



Cartoons added a lot of life to the pages of Ward's Quarterly.



I really enjoyed working on Ward's Quarterly but had some problems with the Editor/Publisher and quit after three issues. This move also eased my heavy schedule a bit, at the time I was also teaching full time and working at Al Hutt Studios. All in all, it was a great experience and a wonderful showcase for my work. Quite a bit of work from ad agencies resulted from this exposure.

I want to mention that I post every Monday Wednesday and Friday. My other blog, HAIRY BLOGMAN, is posted every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, if you are interested in digital art, check it out.

More Ward's Quarterly illustrations

To keep the magazine visually interesting I used a variety of art styles from realistic to cartoons. Don't get me wrong, photos can be terrific, just look at national Geographic, but we usually had rather dull ones to choose from. One exceeption was Tony Spina, Detroit Free Press photographer, who took some excellent photos of the Ford Rouge complex for one of our articles. For some of the portraits that were required I decided to draw sketches or do paintings.


A portrait of Edsel Ford and a drawing for an article on automotive styling.


For the Ford story I decided to position a pencil sketch of Henry Ford over a bold, loosely drawn sketch of the Rouge plant.


A pencil sketch of George Hurst, Jr of Hurst-Campbell Incorporated. An acrylic sketch of American Motors president Roy Abernethy.

Below are some sketches for an article on Ford workers in Europe. At the time I was doing woodcut prints on rice paper and decided to try to draw in ink on this interesting surface using a brush. It worked out very well, although it's quite different than using normal drawing papers and boards as rice paper acts like a blotter, soaking up the ink.

Above: Sam Haslon and Peter Jacobs.


James Herring and family and Josef Zimmerman and family.

Below is the Ford plant at Dagenham,England.

Frederick Higgs, Ford worker.



Some of the cartoons I drew for the magazine. A great time was had drawing all of these images as I enjoy working in various techniques and mediums.