Christmas in Spring?

Since 2009 I have been sending out greeting cards at the holidays that feature one of my festive holiday-themed paintings. Recently I began working on the painting that will be on this year’s version. Here is the initial block-in on that:

Originally I was going to do this up in the style of my favorite American Illustrator, J.C. Leyendecker. I decided against that however since I have been relatively successful working to develop my own painting style - nearly all of my other holiday original pieces have sold!

One thing I did keep to however in my design of this piece is the direct use of one Leyendecker’s beautiful scroll banners. I do love decorative banners - cannot paint them like Leyendecker, but I love them!

This is the last you will see of this piece until December at which time I will post the finished painting to my Facebook page. So please friend me so I can share it with you!

Tennis As Art

As you might have guessed from the previous post, I love tennis. Love to watch it. Love to play it.

Before I became a bit more serious about my art and the type of subjects I wanted to paint, I let my passion for the game of tennis, along with my admiration for the great American illustrators of the 20th century, influence my subject matter and my style.

Earlier in my artistic endevors, those two passions fused together and drove me to create the painting you see here:

"Pete Sampras, After J.C. Leyendecker", oil on board

The subject of this fun illustration is tennis great Pete Sampras. The style I was trying to emulate in the piece was that of my favorite American illustrator of the twentieth century, J.C. Leyendecker.

For more about J.C. Leyendecker and his work click here.

Tennis anyone?

JoeWinklerArt.com

"The Artist" and Hollywood Art

I rarely go to see movies anymore, mostly because I end up not enjoying the few things I see. However in the past three months I did see two of the big movies that were up for Oscars recently, “The Descendants” with George Clooney, and “The Artist” with Jean Dujardin and John Goodman.

LOVED “The Artist”! So much so, that I’ll be seeing it again in a few days with some friends who are seeing it for the first time. How refreshing it was to actually see a film that is not only beautiful to look at, but that requires a viewer to have an imagination!

                                    See this movie. Then buy the soundtrack!

Too bad my favorite illustrator, J.C. Leyendecker isn’t alive today. I would love to have seen the movie poster he would have painted for “The Artist”. It was his era after all!

Growing up I saw many more movies than I do today, both in the theatre, and on video (yes video). Back then, before I got more serious about my artistic subject matter, what I saw in films and television would influence my art projects. I enjoyed renting the old movies of Robert Redford more than anything. Redford was cool. Ever see “Three Days of the Condor”? That’s what Um talkin’ bout!

So it is in the spirit of the good old movies that I’ll share one of my earlier paintings with you today.

                                               “Icon”, 18x24 oil on canvas.

I titled it “Icon” because at the time, I figured everyone would always know who Robert Redford is. Wonder how many younger pups today would have no clue.

Anyway, - Here’s to the movies!

JoeWinklerArt.com

Today’s Featured Sketch and a Painting

Following up on all my recent posts featuring the work of the great American illustrator J.C. Leyendecker, thought I’d share two pieces I’ve done that were based on his style - Well, one is based on his style, the other is a pencil drawing using one of his paintings as reference.

Here is the drawing:

I did this for my Sketchbook Project sketchbook. Copying a favorite master artist is good practice for any artist, and I had loads of fun working this up. I always love the chiseled angles of his work.

And here is the painting:

I made sure to incorporate two of my favorite Leyendecker design elements in this oil painting, a nice sharp scroll, and an architectural base (taken from an Arrow collar ad I believe).

Back in 2003 I submitted this painting to a printing company in New Jersey who was soliciting art for use on their fine arts calendar for 2004. They chose this painting to feature on their calendar for the month of September, presumably because that is when the men’s finals of the U.S. Open are played. Someone there must have been a tennis fan just like myself! The painting was also incorporated into the cover design of the same calendar.

No worries lawyers, I made no money from that usage, and paintings that I sell are created only from MY own reference photos or from life.

JoeWinklerArt.com

J.C. Leyendecker - Part 6 (of 6)

In the last post I mentioned that some, critical of Leyendecker’s work, say that his characters (especially his women) look a bit distant or perhaps mechanical. I can see that, but I’m not bothered by it in the least.

Here are more samples of Saturday Evening Post covers that tell another tale about J.C. Leyendecker.

These might come across as oddly effeminate. This is not surprising since Leyendecker was, in fact, gay (if you didn’t already know that). It needed to be mentioned here however because that fact is interesting in looking at some of his best images.

Being a gay man during the time he lived was a huge taboo so he remained in the closet his entire life. Yet one of his main clients was the "Saturday Evening Post". I think it’s funny to look back at his work and see so many seemingly homosexual images on the cover of a very mainstream, conservative, and hugely popular magazine. The millions of folks who got the magazine probably didn’t catch what he was subtly (or not so subtly) throwing at them. Perhaps the publishes were gay as well.

Whether you look at his Post covers or his advertising art, you see an awful lot of muscular men exchanging longing looks or come hither stares. In the ad image below, one man watches another as he fondles his,  um...  shaft.

And when there is a woman present, many times she seems either oddly detached or ignored completely, as in the Arrow ad below.

In the next image there seems to be a sneaky three way connection between the three service “men”. The woman is again ignored.

In this next ad, instead of gazing into each others eyes, one model stairs at the others genitals. Funny how the fedora is placed just so.

In an earlier post I talked about Leyendecker’s ability to render flesh in such a way that it resembled porcelain. One of the reasons for that, aside from the medium he used, was the reference he set up, right in front of him. He would bring these beefcake models into his studio, oil those boys up and down, and light them just so. All that was left to do was to apply those amazing rendering and painting talents of his.

After successfully placing so many of these kinds of ad images in front of mainstream America, by the time he was doing cover art for America’s most popular magazine, Leyendecker must have thought “What can’t I get away with?”.

There are a precious few books out there on J.C. Leyendecker. The fist which came out in the 1970s is out of print, and had bad reproductions of his work.

The second is a poster book of some of his best work with biographical information in the front.

The third book, which just came out just a couple years ago, has by far the most numerous and best reproductions of his work. Most images were shot from the original paintings, as opposed to old scans of already printed magazine ads and covers, so you can really see the paint texture. It’s not very well written however, but it is comprehensive.

JoeWinklerArt.com

J.C. Leyendecker - Part 5

Another thing I love about the art of J.C. Leyendecker are those graphic and architectural design elements he incorporates into his paintings, particularly his Post covers. Just look at the wonderful rendering of this fleur-de-lis flourish from an Easter Post cover...

...or this chiseled scroll...

 ...you could crack an egg on those things! Leyendecker used many scrolls in his covers and no artist at the time could come close to designing and rendering one like him.

Aside from his “Arrow Collar Man”, Leyendecker was the first artist to use a baby as a symbol for a new year and an old man as the symbol for an old year. An iconic standard still with us today.

Which brings me to the one knock that some folks put on Leyendecker's art. Some say that his figures are a little too stiff or iconographic, and not human enough.

I somewhat agree, but that has always been overshadowed for me by his fantastic rendering skills.

One final post about J.C. Leyendecker to come next time!

JoeWinklerArt.com

joe@joewinklerart.com

J.C. Leyendecker - Part 4

At the height of his fame J.C. Leyendecker was busy painting "Saturday Evening Post" covers. Three-hundred twenty-two of them in fact. Yet many people who aren’t into illustration art will easily confuse Leyendecker Post covers with Norman Rockwell’s.

When one gets to know Leyendecker’s work, then looks at early Rockwell Post covers, the Leyendecker influence becomes apparent. Subject matter-wise many of the whimsical and provincial themes and subjects people attribute to Rockwell were actually done years before by Leyendecker.

Considering his entire body of work however there are a few reasons why I love looking at any of Leyendeckers paintings. The first endearing quality are those slashing diagonal, confident brush strokes of his. It’s amazing how loose and free they seem, yet they render forms and textures so convincingly.

Look at how tangible surfaces and textures are, and yet they are still not executed in what I’d call a photo-realistic way. No areas are overworked at all, that's the beauty of his technique. Looks easy to do. But it's NOT. The only time I’ve ever seen a similar technique is from professional story-board artists using markers.

Which brings me to Leyendeckers formula for mixing oil medium. He used a special blend of turpentine, stand oil, and linseed oil, mixed fresh everyday in specific proportions. This mixture gave his paint a thin, slippery consistency, which showed no sign of texture on the canvas.

When not using the slash stroke technique, Leyendecker was able to work areas of the subject to such a smooth finish that it reads almost like porcelain. In the paintings and detail below, he uses both techniques. Staples of the classic Leyendecker look!

joe@joewinklerart.com

JoeWinklerArt.com

J.C. Leyendecker - Part 3

Without getting into too many extraneous details, dates, and biographical information about Leyendecker, it is somewhat important to mention that his fame happened before photography really began to influence the working methods of illustrators. So he didn’t have the luxury, as did Rockwell and so many others, of using decent and quickly produced photo reference in order to tweek compositions, explore models facial expressions, and experiment with costumes. There’s nothing wrong with using photos, but the fact that Leyendecker very probably didn’t, makes his skills all the more impressive. Just look at these wonderful preparatory oil studies for final paintings.

The entire challenge for any realistic artist as I see it, is to distill the details of their subject down to the bare essential few pieces of visual information needed to nail the description of the thing. “Less is more” as they say. Leaving something for the viewer to fill in is always a good thing.

That’s more of a “fine art” rather than commercial illustration philosophy. Being an illustrator trying to depict a product and belt out work on a deadline had a lot more to do with the­ development of these studies than any artistic philosophy did. But looking at these studies one gets the feeling that Leyendecker could execute the less is more approach as well as any “fine artist” ever could. I guss being an artist with your feet held to the fire to produce work on time for a publisher isn’t such a bad thing after all.

Here’s a couple close-ups to appreciate the confidence with which he sketches with the brush. Look particularly at the fabric portions. Think his previous experience illustrating such products as Interwoven Socks and Arrow Shirts paid off? I’d say so!­­­­­­

The only pencil I can see is the grid lines he used to get proportions right. That’s the great thing about working in oils, they can be thinned down to a watercolor consistency, but, unlike watercolor, the oils can be easily “erased” with paint thinner even hours after placing a stroke.

Among the things we’ll be looking at next time is Leyendeckers “secret” formula for mixing paint medium, something which was essential in allowing him to produce the “Leyendecker Look”.

joe@joewinklerart.com

JoeWinklerArt.com

J.C. Leyendecker - Part 2

J.C. Leyendecker was a classically trained artist who earned a living as an illustrator, but his talent could easily match that of any fine artist in the history of art. The guys fluid and accurate drawing skills were just phenomenal, and that’s really the foundation of any good illustration or painting you know.

His artistic training took him and his brother (who became a lesser known illustrator) to Paris, where he witnessed first hand the art nouveau style and the imagery of Alphonse Mucha and Toulouse-Lautrec. His early work reflects these influences, but it wasn’t until years later that he perfected his own style which became famous as the “Leyendecker look” characterized by those chiselled and confident, yet free-flowing painterly brush strokes which I just love.

Leyendecker gave early American magazine covers and advertisements a distinctive look which dove-tailed with, and in many ways became representational of, the roaring twenties and the “Gatsby era”.

Among his many advertising clients early on were the House of Kuppenheimer, the U.S. Armed forces, Chesterfield cigarettes, and Kelloggs cereal. My favorite illustrations however are the classic ones he did for Arrow shirts and collars. Leyendecker created the “Arrow Collar Man” which was used by the Arrow company for many years.

Because these ad images were not shot directly from Leyendecker's original oil paintings, it might be difficult to appreciate the skill with which these figures were rendered. The image of the female head at the top of the post gives a better idea of the total and complete mastery of brushwork that Leyendecker possessed.

Next time we'll look closer at his working methods and wallow in some of his fantastic paintings!

JoeWinklerArt.com

joe@joewinklerart.com

J.C. Leyendecker - Part 1

Do you like classic American advertising illustration art? Me too! The period from the late 1800s to the middle part of the 1900s is known as the “golden age of illustration”. It included Norman Rockwell who is a household name, but there were many other illustrators whose work had a huge impact on the American consciousness - illustrators such as Howard Chandler Christy, James Montgomery Flagg, and Charles Dana Gibson.

During that "golden age", some illustrators were as well known to the general public as movie stars are today. Why? Because advertising and the media hadn’t yet developed into the saturating monsters that they’ve become in this lovely 21st century world we live in. As a result, some of the characters these artists created for the print media became American icons, being seen on magazine covers, ads, posters, and newspapers.

Ever hear of the "Gibson girl" or the “Arrow Collar Man”? Well all right then. When these icons were created, it wasn’t art directors who dreamed them up, it was illustrators. The public was sometimes as familiar with the illustrators as much as they were with the iconic characters they created.

I’m a huge fan of Norman Rockwell’s work, and I love the illustrations of many artists of that classic era. However, my favorite illustrations to study and simply marvel at, are the ones done by Joseph Christian Leyendecker.

 J.C. Leyendecker lived from 1874 to 1951 and had a style and technique all his own. During his career he was an illustration god to a young Norman Rockwell, and in fact, Rockwell stopped doing "Saturday Evening Post" covers after he did his 321st, stopping just shy of Leyendecker's total of 322, in homage to his hero.

Here are but a few Post covers that the casual art observer might think were painted by Norman Rockwell, but you and I know differently now don't we!

In the next few posts we’ll be taking a closer look at some of J.C. Leyendecker's great illustration work!

joe@joewinklerart.com

JoeWinklerArt.com