Stroke

Pen and ink pictorial book

Pen and ink pictorial book

CoNTENT
INTRODUCTION

ARTIST IN HISTORY

FRANKLIN BOOTH
HOWARD PYLE
JOHN TENNIEL
ARTHUR ROCKHAM

ARTIST OF FUTURE

AARON HORKEY
ASHLEY WOOD
BECKY CLOONANT
CHRIS RIDDELL
CHRIS SAMNEE
DAN FRAGA
DAVE RAPOZA
DZO
MIKE SUTFIN
MARK W. RICHARDS
LUCAS RUGGIERI
JAE LEE
JASON SHAWN ALEXANDER
JASON THIBAULT
 Pen drawing, artwork executed wholly or in part with
pen and ink, usually on paper. Pen drawing is funda-

STYLE
mentally a linear method of making images. In pure
pen drawing in which the artist wishes to supplement
his outlines with tonal suggestions of three-dimen-
sional form, modeling must necessarily be effected
by the close juxtaposition of a series of strokes form-
ing areas of hatching or cross-hatching. Many pen
studies, however, are produced with the substitution

OF of tonal washes (layers of colour spread over a broad

surface) laid onto the drawing with a brush, in which
case the outlines or other important definitions of the
figures or landscape are established by the pen lines.
Inks of various types used in pen studies contribute

PEN
additional diversity to the final effects. Historically,
three types of ink were most frequently used. One
was black car-bon ink, made from extremely fine par-
ticles of the soot of burnt oils or resins in a solu-tion of
glue or gum arabic. The finest type of black carbon
ink was known as Chinese ink and was the prototype
of the modern black India ink. A brown ink popular

AND with the old masters because of its warm, luminous

colour qualities was known as bistre. It was prepared
by boiling wood soot to obtain a liquid, transparent
brown extract. The third important ink was an iron

INK
gall, or chemical, ink. Its principal ingredients were
iron sul-fate, the extract of gall nuts, and a gum ar-
abic solution. It was, in fact, the common writing
ink for centuries and was employed for most early
drawings. Its colour when first applied to the paper
is bluish black, but it rapidly turns blackish and, over
the years, a dull brown and tends to disintegrate.
Into the
history.

work of the masters.

F

Franklin
Booth
Franklin Booth owed his
amazing style of pen and
ink drawing to ignorance. In the process of
unknowingly emulating the
Booth was one of the
engravers’ intricate lines,
greatest American
Booth created a unique
illustrators and one of the
style of pen drawing that
absolute masters of pen
has since been imitated but
and ink drawing. His style
never matched.
was the result of an isolated
childhood on an Indiana His drawings are marvels
farm and an innocent of tone created in line. The
ignorance of the printing textures of the world, faces,
technology of his time. clothing, atmospheric
effects, sweeping skies,
When Booth was growing up,
roiling clouds, the vibrance
determined to be an artist
of forests and fields, are
and create illustrations like
created from thousands of
the ones he saw in popular
precisely placed pen lines,
magazines of the day
spaced and arranged to
like Harper’s and Scribner’s,
blend in the eye into optical
he began to teach himself
tones of grays. Actually,
to draw in pen and ink by
“tones” and “grays” don’t
copying the illustrations as
do Booth enough credit, his
he saw them, not realizing
black and white drawings
that the illustrations were
suggest  colors in the the
the product of wood
mind, in much the same way
engravings, made by
as Van Gogh’s wonderfully
specialty engravers by
textured drawings; or like
copying the original artists’
the “colors” of the grays in
works.
Chinese ink painting. 

HOWARD
PYLE
Howard Pyle, who is often
rightly called “The Father of
American Illustration”, is one
of those remarkable points
within that tapestry where
the threads converge, the
design is pulled together,
reworked and renewed
and influence radiates out
in fresh patterns.
Pyle revolutionized
illustration, both through his
own work, which introduced
a new level of drama, action
and visual excitement to
what was largely a staid
and restrained art form at
the time, and through his
influence on his students,
who included some of the
finest illustrators ever to
put lines or colors on a flat
surface. Collectively, Pyle
and his students helped
usher in the “Golden Age of
American Illustration”.
Pyle’s impact on the art
form known as illustration is
hard to overstate. His Durer-
influenced pen and ink
F
illustrations are among the
finest ever done. He was
one of the first illustrators to
embrace and understand
the new four-color printing
process, and his paintings
are remarkable for their
ground-breaking color,
dramatic compositions and
emotional impact.
AmongPyle’smost impresive
accomplishments is the
list of students that he
nurtured,encouraged and
influenced in his role a
teacher, both at the Drexel
Institute of Arts and Sciences
in Philadelphia, (now Drexel
University), and at his own
school in Delaware and
plein air sessions in nearby
Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.
The list is resplendent with
great illustrators like N.C.
Wyeth, Maxfield Parrish,
Frank Schoonover, Harvey
Dunn, Phillip Goodwin,
Stanley Arthurs and many
others.
F

JOHN
TENNIEL
John Tenniel is best known
(and rightly so) for his
beautiful, imaginative,
definitive and absolutely
perfect pen and ink
illustrations for Lewis of Dinosaur Cartoons.)
Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures The majority of Tenniel’s
in Wonderland and Through career was spent as a
the Looking Glass: And cartoonist and charicaturist
What Alice Found There. for Punch, the British satire
Though many illustrators and humor magazine in the
have done their versions of late 19th century. He also
Alice (see Lauren Harmon’s exhibited his work in galleries
lists of Alice Illustrators, and painted a fresco in the
Tenniel remains the Hall of Poets of the House of
definitive interpretation. The Lords.
only one who breaks out As an illustrator, he created
of Tenniel’s shadow when illustrations for a number of
illustrating Alice is the great books including Aesop’s
Arthur Rackham. Fables, Undine, and Dickens’
Tenniel has also influenced The Haunted Man. It’s for
many artists and illustrators his suberb drawings for the
over the years, from his Alice stories, that we most
contemporary Victorian treasure him though.
illustrators and cartoonists
to modern “gothic” artists
like Edward Gorey and
Mark Ryden. (You can see
my own nod to Tenniel in
this cartoon from my book

ARTHUR
RACKHAM
British book illustrator Arthur
Rackham, who was active
from the late 1800’s to the
1930’s, was one of the all
time great illustrators and
one of my favorites. He
was particularly noted for
his illustrations of children’s
books. Whatever he tackled,
Fairy Tales of the Brothers
Grimm, Rip van Winkle,
The Wind in the Willows,
Peter Pan in Kensington
Gardens…, Rackham would
own it. His unique vision and
amazingly strong images
became an integral part of
the experience of reading
the story.
Of the many artists who
have tried to illustrate
Alice in Wonderland in the
footsteps of the amazing
Sir John Tenniel, Rackham
is the only artist I can think
who doesn’t disappear
into Tenniel’s shadow like
a Cheshire Cat fading into
the gloom.
Rackham’s fairy tale worlds
F
are sometimes steeped in
gloom and mystery. His misty
forests are inhabited by
elves and goblins peering
about twisted roots, massive
gnarled trees, mushrooms,
ferns and sinuous, tangled
undergrowth. I think his fairy
tale illustrations were one of
the main starting points for
modern fantasy illustration,
influencing artists like Frank
Frazetta and Roy Krenkel
and the generations of
fantasy artists behind them.
Rackham was a deft pen
and ink artist and most of
his paintings started as pen
and ink drawings into which
he worked layer after layer
of transparent watercolor
glaze, a painstaking
method associated more
with classical painting than
modern illustration.
Artists of the
modern age.

art descendants.
Aaron Horkey Ashley Wood
Becky CloonanT Chris Riddell
Chris Samnee Dan Fraga
Dave Rapoza DZO
Mike Sutfin Mark W. Richards
Lucas Ruggieri Jae Lee
Jason shawn
Jason Thibault
Alexander