Drawing Lessons from the Famous Artists School

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THE ELOQUENCE OF SIMPLICITY

was not one of the many professional models engaged by Rockwell

when he lived in New Rochelle, New York. Instead, he chose Dave

Campion, the owner of a local news store, for this and other images

that required a character who was tall and lean. Positioning him in

a crouching position gives his body angles that create movement,

and the diagonal nightstick and shadow add to this eect. Streaks of

white paint in the foreground tell us a car has just gone speeding by.

Ben Stahl

Story illustration for

Fugitive From Terror

by James R. Webb for

The Saturday Evening Post,

April 23, 1949

Oil on canvas

When Ben Stahl was a young artist, his mentors often told him to

“keep it simple.” He found that hard to do: He loved drawing every

single leaf on a tree. However, he “began to see the eloquence of

pictures that possessed this restraint and simplicity.” It’s not easy

to paint that way—“to attain simplicity while maintaining the true

essence of a scene is most dicult.”

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The illustrators of the Famous Artists School worked largely for

publication, and their art for magazine covers, stories, and adver-

tisements was seen and enjoyed by a vast, popular audience. They

knew they had just seconds to capture a reader’s attention, tell a

cohesive visual story, and engage their audience suciently, so as to

inspire the purchase of a magazine. To accomplish this, artists found

inventive ways to incorporate common, recognizable symbols that

conveyed meaning and also had a strong graphic identity. Simple but

striking symbols are employed in Atherton’s July 4th illustration, in

which a lovable Scottish terrier is delivered with a happy birthday tag

in a box of patriotic colors in celebration of an all-American holiday.

THE USE OF VISUAL SYMBOLS

Austin Briggs, too, talked of simplicity. He cautioned the novice

painter against including unnecessary detail, and counseled re-

straint in introducing extra shapes and forms, excessive colors, or

too many dierent tones and values. The elements of the image must

be designed to work together, to complement each other rather than

battle for the viewer’s attention. An artist is much more successful, he

said, “when he chooses a limited number of well-assorted ideas, and

presents these in a coherent, interesting, and forceful way.”

John Atherton advised his students to “try to cultivate the ability

to make a picture out of each subject,” even when making simple

studies. “When you jot something down on a sketch pad that you

think is interesting, always think of your sketch as a picture as well

as a study. Place it on your paper or other materials so that it forms

a pleasing and eective composition. In studying the sketches of the

great masters of the Renaissance, I am impressed constantly by how

beautifully composed they are.” He challenged artists to think of each

drawing as a finished picture, “framed by the four sides of the paper

or canvas.”

Austin Briggs

In this drawing, Briggs eliminates unnecessary detail and leads our eye directly to

the focal point — the boy who is more interested in eating the turkey than expressing

thanks for it.

John Atherton

Studies for Duck Hunters,

c.1953

Pencil on paper

In these composition

sketches, John Atherton

was searching out the

grouping that would

create visual interest

and be both simple and

direct in telling the story.

Small changes indicate

his thinking process:

Separate one hunter

from the group, or bring

them closer together?

Push figures back in

space, or bring them

forward? Raise or lower

the horizon line? Small

adjustments to the main

elements of a picture

can impact both meaning

and design.

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