New Drawing Started: Jan Sunning on the Grass

Okay, enough fooling around. It’s time to get back to work. I’ve been doodling some ideas for the next piece with nothing lighting a spark, so I spent the day yesterday in a local park with my camera looking for other people enjoying the day. I found this woman, Jan, who was kind enough to let me take a photo of her, and I think I can make it into an interesting ink drawing.

I made a small outline sketch that I enlarged to fit onto a sheet of illustration board, 20 x 30″. I think I’ll prep the board with a coat of shellac primer, so that I can scratch away ink marks, which will work well for the grass.

There a a couple other things to think about before I start. She had a tattoo on her shoulder that I might either keep, change, or discard. I might also place something in the foreground, so I have some more doodling to play around with on this.

Appreciating the artist McClelland Barclay

McClelland Barclay was an American illustrator of the early 20th Century, born in St. Louis in 1891. He became well known for his work in magazine fiction, advertisements, and posters.

Chief among the advertising clients was the Body by Fisher division of General Motors that began in the mid 1920’s. He had developed a particular female character in his work up to then, and she fit into this Fisher campaign as a symbol of style and elegance, soon to be known as the “Fisher Body Girl.” The model he used was Nan McClelland, his niece at the time, who later became his wife. He had a habit, in fact, of marrying his models; three different ones.

Barclay enlisted in the Navy in 1939, but still continued doing commercial work during the war. Unfortunately, he lost his life on a mission in 1943.

Sketch: Embrace on the Porch

I made this quick sketch after watching some old movie with a friend. The film wasn’t that good, so she changed the channel before I found out the name of it, but this one scene stuck in my head. Two teenagers on a porch at night after their date. The contrast of the lighting really made a strong impression, so I scribbled this down later. I may work this up as a painting at some point. The movie was in black and white, so I’ll need to figure out a color scheme.