Stipple Portrait Illustrations | Musicians

This time, I am profiling some notable musicians that I have illustrated in WSJ style stipple portraits. I am a pretty heavy-duty music fan, so creating these portraits was a labor of love.Back in the nineties, I was commissioned most weeks by the New Yorker magazine. In those days, the Goings On About Town, or “GOAT” section was all in black-and-white. No color imagery as is the case today. As far as I know, this was a stylistic rather than practical direction on the part of the Editors and Designers. I think it was a distinctive look. Here are three art works that appeared in the magazine…Youssou N’Dour, the famous Senegalese vocalist and composer. The shirt on this figure was the real challenge— so much detail!Robert Cray, the legendary American blues-man. I had fun with this one, and put some flourishes of line-work to impart movement to the composition.Sylvain Sylvain, American rock guitarist, perhaps most notable for being a member of the New York Dolls. (That is a cool name.) Because the above illustrations were called for so frequently, I was required to drop everything and jump on the assignments in order to keep the gig. Turnaround was usually 24-hours, so I had to work fast. This is why I utilized the cross-hatch technique in addition to the more stipple portrait oriented style I created for the Wall Street Journal Hedcut illustrations.Lastly, a portrait I created for my own pleasure and purposes. The Italian composer Ottorino Respighi. I love his suite of music that includes the Fountains of Rome, The Pines of Rome, and the Festivals of Rome…