Mister Crew » Illustrations

The Elements of Style, Illustrated

R.A. Schenck — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 04:48:52 +0000

While I still prefer my ragged dog-eared paperback edition of The Elements of Style, this nicely bound hardcover version is nice to flip through on occasion for inspiration and is always within arm’s reach on my desk.

Its illustrator Maira Kalman has also worked on other notable projects and was recently featured in the WSJ several months back (her email-free workspace sounds tempting).

Rogue’s Gallery Illustrations – Part 2

R.A. Schenck — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 15:16:45 +0000

More illustrations from Rogue’s Gallery (an old children’s book) – Part 1, for reference.

Illustrations from Free & Easy

R.A. Schenck — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 13:24:41 +0000

Scans of drawings that you’ll occasionally find in issues of Free & Easy. Some of the styling is quite odd out of context.

Football Illustrations from Yale, 1878

R.A. Schenck — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 20:37:04 +0000

College football illustrations by Frederic Remington, circa 1878. For a brief time, he was an art student at Yale and also played on the school’s team, which became the subject of many of his early drawings. From wikipedia:

Remington attended the art school at Yale University, the only male in the freshman year. However, he found that football and boxing were more interesting than the formal art training, particularly drawing from casts and still life objects. He preferred action drawing and his first published illustration was a cartoon of a “bandaged football player” for the student newspaper Yale Courant. Though he was not a star player, his participation on the strong Yale football team was a great source of pride for Remington and his family.

He left school the following year to take care of his father who had tuberculosis.

Related post: Cowboys and Vaqueros

The Navy Art Collection

R.A. Schenck — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 13:15:04 +0000

From the Naval History and Heritage Command: “The Navy Art Collection has over 15,000 paintings, prints, drawings, and sculpture. It contains depictions of naval ships, personnel, and action from all eras of U.S. naval history, but due to the operation of the Combat Art Program, the eras of World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and Desert Shield/Storm are particularly well represented.”

Military artists were just recently featured in the NYTimes as well: With Sketchpads and Guns, Semper Fi

All images courtesy of the Navy Art Collection, Washington, DC.

The Illustrations of Rien Poortvliet

R.A. Schenck — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:53:04 +0000

Poortvliet was a famous Dutch painter, best known for his part in the creation of the Gnome children’s books. He was also both a hunter and a naturalist, and spent a lot of time creating vivid and educational illustrations of the wildlife around him in Europe. From wikipedia: Poortvliet saw himself as a characteristic narrator. His drawings told the tale, and at most he added a short caption.

Images from The Living Forest: The World of Animals.

Cowboys and Vaqueros

R.A. Schenck — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 02:22:40 +0000

During the late 19th century, illustrator Frederic Remington documented and painted life as he experienced it in the wild west when the prairies were still untouched and U.S. cavalries were still fighting Indian tribes.

Over the foot-hills.

Riding the range – winter.

The punchers.

Cowboys coming to town for Christmas.

Cowboy leading calf.

Riding herd in the rain.

Vaqueros breaking a bronc.

Horse raising in the northwest.

Rogue’s Gallery Illustrations

R.A. Schenck — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 07:12:39 +0000

Not that Rogues Gallery, though the name did catch my eye when I was skimming through shelves at one of my local used bookstores this weekend. Published in 1969 by Edgar Parker, the children’s book has some fun illustrations that I couldn’t pass up.