Classic WSJ Art, part 8

( To view the initial Post in this series, please click on https://cyan-sunfish-e2wr.squarespace.com/config/pages/620a981b1f3c5f26f4888ee8 )

Here’s another dive into my copious WSJ art file box! We start with this elegant drawing of a Boll Weevil. printed at ½-column size, likely on Page 1…

Boll Weevil

Next, a conceptual illustration for a story about the challenges of Getting Ahead:

I like the simplicity of this one. It probably took me all of an hour to execute. Seems like a modern take on Sisyphus!

Sometimes, I got to illustrate things in outer space, like this drawing of a satellite:

Satellite

A probe of Saturn, requiring a lot of ink! Getting those elliptical lines rendered was quite an accomplishment.

Next up, a portrait of a New York developer…

WSJ portrait

This illustration was likely published in Section Two, at 1 or 2 columns wide. When section two launched, The Journal was wide open to new approaches, as long as they didn’t include photography! The above drawing is mainly linear, as opposed to the mostly pointillistic ‘hedcut’ style. Finally, a standard hedcut portrait:

WSJ hedcut

Pictured he is the financier and banker, head of Citibank, Sanford Weill. A half-column page 1 portrait in The Wall Street Journal. Two things I would change about this drawing that I’ve learned from years of experience: I would have tilted his head up, not left him heeling to the right, and I would de-emphasize the lines between his teeth. I learned pretty early on that to actually render individual teeth gives a gap-toothed impression.

That’s it for today… more is on the way!