beatsnothing.com » Illustration

Dot Dot Dot

Jaap Proost — Sun, 30 May 2010 12:39:18 +0000

A businessman can always look at his bank account to see if he has made it. Another way to know is when your face appears as a hedcut in the Wall Street Journal. For more than four decades noticeable figures from all kind of fields are featured in the newspaper with these dot drawings.

The hedcuts are a result of the Wall Street Journal reserve against images. For more than a century the newspaper kept photos out of the pages. In 1979 illustrator Kevin Sprouls presented his line drawings at the bureaus of the paper. His work had the classical feeling they were looking for. The drawings resemble woodcut printings. Since then the stipple portraits became a signature mark of the newspaper.

Nowadays there are six artists on staff to create an ever-growing family of hedcuts. The countless little dots are still drawn by hand without the use of computers. The process is simple but time-consuming. The illustrator traces a photograph with ink dots on a sheet of vellum or white paper. It takes about three to five hours to make a portrait.

Because of its connection with the Wall Street Journal hedcuts give the portrayed persons an aura of importance. The style is also used in other publications. The Monocle uses dot drawings to illustrate the ‘Style Leader’ articles of the magazine. Only instead of the face, they dot the whole body.

1…………………………………………………………………..

2…………………………………………………………………..

3…………………………………………………………………..

4…………………………………………………………………..

Monks And Knights

Jaap Proost — Mon, 24 May 2010 16:53:40 +0000

CLASSICAL records have their own type of album covers. Take for example the images on this page. They stood on the covers of two records I pulled from the shelves. The first one illustrated Carmina Burana, a composition based on songs from the dark ages. The second is the back of a Russian record with classical music which title I can’t read because it is Cyrillic. The Carmina Burana record once belonged to my parents. As a kid I was intrigued by the collage showing monks in the middle of the apocalypse. And I still am.

………………………………………………………

Fishy Business

Jaap Proost — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 19:22:24 +0000

THROW in the line of a fishing rod in a pond, river or sea somewhere in or around the United Kingdom and whatever you catch in can be looked up in ‘The Natural History of British Fishes’. This book from 1808 gives the scientific and general descriptions of the most interesting species in the waters of Britain. It is full of colored plates drawn by Edward Donovan. This writer, natural history illustrator and amateur zoologist also published ‘The Natural History of British Birds’ and ‘The Natural History of British Insects’.

………………………………………………………….

Window Shopping

Jaap Proost — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 19:47:42 +0000

IN the window of a little shop on the south side of Rotterdam lays this set of stamps with these cool masks. The old lady that owns the rundown store refused to sell me the stamps (they only cost 1.50 in old guilders) because ‘they are too faded’. I said I liked them that way. The color-fade works well with the black outline. But she refused. Although the old lady was very persistent in not selling the stamps, she couldn’t stop me taking a picture. By the way, Umm Al Qiwain is one of the emirates in the United Arab Emirates and is famous for its stamps.

Dizionario

Jaap Proost — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 07:09:49 +0000

WITH this little dictionary in your pocket you can find your way in Italy. That is if you’re from the Netherlands. It translates Italian into Dutch and vica-versa. The nice cover shows one of the biggest reasons to visit the country; old buildings. Cattedrale means cathedral, Chiesa is church and a temple is called tempo. The dictionary was published in 1967 by Van Goor Publishers.

………………………………………………….

At The Seaside

Jaap Proost — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 08:17:51 +0000

DICK Bruna is one of the most famous illustrators of the Netherlands. He is the creator of the children’s books character Nijntje, a little rabbit that also goes by the name of Miffy. Bruna’s basic style is known all over the world, from New York till Tokyo. As a little kid I always liked the shells that appeared in the book ‘nijntje aan zee’. The book is also published in English with the title ‘Miffy at the Seaside’.

Doom Deformed

Jaap Proost — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 19:15:16 +0000

IF nowadays the church would commission an artist to paint a frightening vision of hell to show the sinful congregation, I recommend Elzo. With all the skulls and deformed freaks the work of the illustrator from Brussels looks a bit like medieval doom paintings. Elzo is inspired by the covers of his dad’s punk records and images he finds in old magazines and encyclopedias. You can find his work, among other things, on skateboards, posters, stickers and T-shirts.

………………………………………………

Harlem Renaissance

Jaap Proost — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 19:04:56 +0000

THE twenties of the last century were not only roaring in Berlin and Paris. In New York City it was also vibrating in Harlem. In 1924 artist and graphic designer Winold Reiss was commissioned by Survey Graphic magazine to capture the spirit of the Harlem Renaissance with a series of portraits of its residents. Among his subjects were leading figures such as James Weldon Johnson, W.E.B. Du Bois and Countee Cullen. Reiss also designed the cover of this issue.

Born in Germany in 1886, Reiss was a portraitist who worked with an almost journalistic point of view. He believed that an artist must travel to find the most interesting subjects. After seeing the most of Germany, he immigrated in 1913 to America. In the New World Reiss was captivated by Native Americans. He visited the Black Foots tribes of Montana and made many portraits its people. Reiss died in New York City in 1953. More work of Reiss here.

………………………………………

Memento Mori Bicep

Jaap Proost — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:58:06 +0000

IN a time when in the western world only sailors and servicemen had ink under their skin, there weren’t much tattoos to choose from. Most of the pieces on a tattoo flash were anchors, hearts and skulls. The tattoo artist had 50 to 100 drawings in his parlor to pick from and the only custom work in those days was your name or the date. The tattoos on this page must have found their way to the biceps of melancholic sailors. The pieces date from around the Second World War.

…………………………………………

Finsta From Sweden

Jaap Proost — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:45:03 +0000

FINSTA is a cold war kid from Western Europe. Sweden to be precisely. You can see in his style that he’s grown up in a time when the United States was a place that not only provided protecting against the Russians, but also dominated popular culture. Our fascination with the New World started with Alf, the A-Team and E.T. After that Yo! MTV Raps, the book Spraycan Art from Henry Chalfant and comics from Robert Crumb and Vaughn Bode influenced a generation. See more work from the illustrator here.

……………………………………………….