Dean Cornwell

Cornwell, a contemporary of Rockwell's (Rockwell was a fan, in fact, who sought Cornwell originals for his wall) whose preliminary charcoal drawings -- he seems to have seldom used photography for his prep work -- are collected by illustrators today. 

He could draw like a dream. 

His early romantic/adventure illustrations are my favorites. Their painting is a little softer, the color subtle. Many are boldly designed vignettes.  The women are winsome, the men heroic.

Oddly, his work suffered as he matured.

In his middle period, his sense of color atmosphere abandoned him, and the several Biblical epics he illustrated are oversaturated in Technicolor reds and blues and golds.

He idolized the British artist Frank Brangwyn, and like Brangwyn, became a muralist later in life -- a moneylosing shot at immortality.*  But  influenced by Brangwyn, his treatment of the human figure, and of spatial design, became increasingly mannered. 

He painted angular figures overlapped in strange and flattened clusters, like crowds of dancers photographed with a telephoto lens.  The color got stranger, too.

But there never was a better draughtsman, particularly in the drawing of form and drapery, in the history of illustration.

He also epitomized the ethic of good visual research; every buckle and strap and switchcover are depicted with explanatory clarity.

The Cornwell book (Dean Cornwell, Dean of Illustrators, by Patricia Janis Broder) is around, though not at much of a discount ($98 was the lowest I found on the web).  Any student of the field should have it.

--

*And futile.  His most famous murals, in the L. A. public library, were lost in a fire about a decade ago.  His illustrations are widely scattered, and live on in reproductions.

Comments

[RemagDiv]

Hey Paul,

Can we get any MxO updates? =P

[Leland Purvis]

In May I had the pleasure of seeing a number of Dean Cornwell paintings up close at the Dahesh Museum in NYC. Really phenomenal stuff. That book should be more readily available.

There were a large number of great illustrators in the 1940s-1960s range. I think that the only reason we haven't seen more books on them is that they spent the vast majority of their time as freelance illustrators and the prospect of working out all the copyright issues to reprint a monograph-sized book seems like a monstrous undertaking.

[Deborah]

Kevin - Thanks, I appreciate the ctnmemosRaphael - Speedpaint is a term that's in pretty common use among the Concept Art community. It generally refers to paintings that are done in 2 - 3 hours as opposed to a more finished painting that could take anywhere from a few hours to a few days. I'd say I worked on Red Sonja about 2 1/2 hours. It was spread out over several days though, so it's just a guess. The Cornwell copy was probably about an hour and a half. By comparison - the cover to Cap #41 was probably around 12 - 14 hours total, including the drawing time (I don't do any drawing for these speedpaints, I just roughly sketch in the shapes in Photoshop and start painting from there).

[Muhammad]

Thanks man, I've been meaning to buy one of his books but this will do for now haha...cheers, dunno if you cop'd the New JC Linedecker book, i asmuse you have, pretty grand cop.On a sidenote, I just heard the interview on sidebar with Frank Stockton, he mentioned you. On top of that, not to long after, I went to Irene Gallo blog and saw her post on you there. Can't seem to escape your name man haha. Way to keep buzz up man! Keep the grinder brew'n.Happy Holidays sir.-Bags

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