Drawing Lessons from the Famous Artists School

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Job: 11803 Title: #218076# Drawing Lessons From The Famous Artists School (Rockport)

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Empathy, or the ability to feel with the characters and the action you

are portraying, is the secret to making your pictures come alive. The

spirit of the event, according to Austin Briggs, is more important than

the fact. Paint what moves you; present your emotions so that your

viewer can share them.

Exploring a similar theme, Norman Rockwell’s Girl at Mirror,

a 1954 Saturday Evening Post cover illustration, pictures a child’s

transition to young adulthood. Rockwell had a natural ability to

portray experiences that a broad audience could easily relate to,

an essential element of his success.

THE IMPORTANCE OF EMPATHY

Girl at Mirror follows a long tradition of artists who have pictured

a woman contemplating her reflection. George Hughes, fellow

Post cover artist, said that Édouard Manet’s 1877 Woman Before Mir-

ror inspired this painting. Two paintings by other artists stand out

as strong candidates, however. Included in Rockwell’s reference files

are examples of Picasso’s Girl Before a Mirror and Louise Élisabeth

Vigée Le Brun’s The Artist’s Daughter, each of which could have

directly influenced this work. Rockwell typically created a full-scale

charcoal drawing in preparation for work on his final canvas. The

drawing closely resembles his finished illustration, from the main

Austin Briggs

I’ll Never Let You Go, 1948

Illustration for

The American Magazine,

1948

Casein on board

In this story illustration,

Briggs inspires empathy

for this young woman,

who explores the depths

of memory through the

objects found in a storage

trunk.

Norman Rockwell

Girl at Mirror, 1954

Study (in charcoal) and final cover illustration

The Saturday Evening Post, March 6, 1954

Oil on canvas

picture elements to the appearance of actress Jane Russell on the

magazine pages. There are, however, distinct dierences between the

two. Consider the changes that Rockwell made in his final and what

impact they have had on the painting.

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Job: 11803 Title: #218076# Drawing Lessons From The Famous Artists School (Rockport)

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Text

Girl at Mirror follows a long tradition of artists who have pictured

a woman contemplating her reflection. George Hughes, fellow

Post cover artist, said that Édouard Manet’s 1877 Woman Before Mir-

ror inspired this painting. Two paintings by other artists stand out

as strong candidates, however. Included in Rockwell’s reference files

are examples of Picasso’s Girl Before a Mirror and Louise Élisabeth

Vigée Le Brun’s The Artist’s Daughter, each of which could have

directly influenced this work. Rockwell typically created a full-scale

charcoal drawing in preparation for work on his final canvas. The

drawing closely resembles his finished illustration, from the main

Norman Rockwell

Girl at Mirror, 1954

Study (in charcoal) and final cover illustration

The Saturday Evening Post, March 6, 1954

Oil on canvas

picture elements to the appearance of actress Jane Russell on the

magazine pages. There are, however, distinct dierences between the

two. Consider the changes that Rockwell made in his final and what

impact they have had on the painting.

NOW YOU TRY IT!

reimagine a rockwell

Artists often find inspiration in each other’s work and

quote or appropriate inspirational compositions.

• Choose an image by Norman Rockwell or another

famous illustrator.

• Now re-create it based upon your own experience

or events inspired by the contemporary world.

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Al Parker was especially good at creating innovatively designed

scenes that felt alive and real to his viewers. In these preliminary draw-

ings for one of his mother-and-daughter illustrations, he first works

out his composition in terms of large shapes and movement lines.

When he begins to add detail to the faces and clothing, we see the per-

sonalities of the characters and the relationship between them emerge.

(All images on this spread)

Alfred Charles Parker

Pencil studies for and final cover illustration

Famous Artists Magazine, 1958

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