Dracula ink line illustrations

In the early 1970's I was doing more work out of New York through my reps Neeley Mulvey Associates. Randy Mulvey sent me this great assignment, 35 illustrations for a Dracula story. I had done a few Dracula paperback book covers and had drawn a series of sample illustrations depicting Edgar Rice Burrough's stories which probably had a lot to do with Randy landing this assignment. It pays to do samples ! The book that the assignment was for was titled GREAT TALES OF HORROR AND SUSPENSE and was published by Galahad Books. Assignments like these were a welcome relief from the advertising work which usually were done under great pressure of tight deadlines. Of course, these particular illustrations had to be worked on between my regular advertising assignments, so there still was a certain amount of pressure involved. Pressure comes from all directions, not only deadlines but the pressure you put on yourself to try to do a great illustration.


These illustrations were ink line drawings with a color overlay. Above is the ink drawing and below is the drawing with the blue color overlay as it appeared in print. I shot reference photos in a local cemetery for this particular drawing.



This series of ink drawings were great fun to do. I rendered them using a crowquill pen and a brush using India ink on whatman hot-pressed illustration board





For models I used my illustrator friend Lou Perkowski for Dracula, just as I had done on the paperback Dracula book covers. I also used my wife Jeanne as well as some of my students from the art school where I was teaching.

More ink line drawings

More sample ink line illustrations that I did in the mid 1960's which illustrate stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs. These illustrations were done for my New York reps to present to art directors at various book publishers. Some interesting assignments resulted from these efforts. It's very important for illustrators to produce art samples to show various clients.


This illustration depicts THE LAND OF HIDDEN MEN, the original title was JUNGLE GIRL.


A close up of the art to show you the detail in the drawing.


I also adapted this art for one of my comic book cover parodies.

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This art illustrates the story THE ETERNAL LOVER.


I had fun adapting this art for my parody series.


Illustrating the TARZAN OF THE APES book.


Adapted for my parody, JUNGLE LOVE Comics.


Illustration for BACK TO THE STONE AGE.


Another comic book cover parody adaptation.

Ink line art

For many years I specialized in ink line drawings, These are sample illustrations that I did which illustrated Edgar Rice Burroughs' stories. Some of them were used as covers for the fanzine ERB-dom. I also sold these as a series of prints at comic book conventions. These samples were used by my art reps to show to potential clients. I will show some of the work that resulted from these samples in a later blog.


This illustration was based on the book BEYOND THIRTY. I used my wife and one of my students as models for this drawing.


A close up showing the detail in the rendering which was done using a Crowquill pen on Whatman's hot-pressed illustration board.


Illustration for TARZAN OF THE APES.


Illustration for OUT OF TIME'S ABYSS. This drawing appeared on the cover of ERB-dom #26, June 1969. I'll post more of these ink line illustrations on Friday.

For the past three years I have been working on a series of comic book cover parodies and decided to turn some of the above art into covers, below are the results. I exhibit theses covers as 13 x 10" signed, limited edition prints in galleries and art centers.

A wonderful vacation in the sun !

Early morning in PV.


The view from our balcony at the Fiesta Americana hotel.


One of our very favorite restaurants in PV, the River Cafe.


Gloria in front of the new trendy La Leche restaurant near our hotel.


A very different looking restaurant with a wild painted line mural and white barrels in front. We had a great meal here.


Gloria enjoying a Mango Daquiri at the hotel. I usually design a poster commemorating our trip. I didn't do any watercolor sketches on this trip as I sometimes do.

Enjoying PV

Gloria and I are in Puerto Vallarta having a great time.

Heading for PV !

Art for fun 2

JEANNE IN JAPAN

A pen and brush ink drawing of my wife Jeanne in our ryokan in Kyoto, Japan.


CAIRO

A watercolor sketch of Cairo done from the balcony of our hotel room.


ALONG THE NILE

A quick watercolor sketch done while strolling along the Nile.


LONDON RAIN

A London scene painted in my studio done in ink line and watercolor.


HILLSDALE RODEO

An acrylic painting done on canvas after viewing a rodeo in Hillsdale, Michigan.


RODEO ACTION

This painting was done with colored pencils and Designer's Colors. Mixing mediums can be quite interesting, often resulting in very interesting effects.

Art for fun

When I wasn't busy with my commercial assignments I would do paintings or experiment with various mediums. These drawings and paintings were used in my books, DRAWING IN PENCIL and ART AND ILLUSTRATION TECHNIQUES, published by Watson Guptill. Both are long out of print, but can be found in used book stores, check Amazon.com or other sources on the internet.


MONA

A simple, effective sketching technique, using a black Prismacolor pencil with watercolor washes.


ALONG KANDY LAKE

Prismacolor pencils were used for this drawing. It's a Sri Lanka scene which I drew after returning home.The pencil tones were blended using a paper stump dampened with Bestine.


BESAKIH

I used water-soluble colored pencils on 4-ply, medium surfaced bristol board.to draw this Balinese scene. Clear water was washed over the drawing to blend the colors.


SUKRI

This Balinese girl was done with a combination of colored pencils and Designer's Colors. I blended the pencil lines with a Bestine-dampened paper stump.


MAKOLA MARKET, GHANA

This is an acrylic painting done on canvas. I often do paintings like this after returning from a trip. I love experimenting by utilizing design patterns in a scene.

Art, illustration and design for Tenna-Tech and ARA

Another assignment from the Premier Corporation, this time a company logo, brochure as well as art and photography. Below is the new logo that I designed for Tenna-Tech.
Premier flew me down to central Tennessee in their company airplane to check out and photograph their operation.



Tenna-Tech is a company that has developed a cut-and-fill coal mining operation. On the brochure cover I used the new logo and a photograph of reclaimed land.





This is one of the page spreads in the brochure and below are illustrations depicting the strip mining and land reclamation methods employed by Tenna-Tech.





A map showing the waterway system Tenna-Tech uses to transport coal by barges.



Another Premier subsidiary was ARA who manufactured air conditioning equipment. For this ad I did a large acrylic painting which was later hung in their offices. I had a great time doing work for Premier, from designing, illustrating, photography and even painting. Jim Donahue, Premier's advertising manager, was a great guy to work with, he was always open to new ideas and encouraged creative approaches to the assignments. I worked with Jim when I first got started in the business, he was a great mentor and I was very lucky to have known him. He was also a terrific salesman and always brought in exiting assignments when he had his art studio, Allied Artists, in Detroit.