WSJ Hedcuts and Line Art
This week, WSJ Hedcuts and Line Art from my days working at The Wall Street Journal, in the 1980’s. That’s a funny word — hedcut. It’s newspaper jargon for the small portraits the WSJ sprinkled through its pages. When I arrived on the scene, there were a few “hedcuts” in the paper. For many years, the policy at The Journal was, “Black-and-White, No Photographs”. Advertisers were free to use photography, certainly, but it was not condoned for the content of the paper. Those early portraits were done by an artist from South Carolina, I believe. He created small sketches, using a soft pencil on pebbled board. Before my time, the Journal would mail him photos of the subjects they wanted, and he would mail the portrait art back. That seems like forever! After I demonstrated my capabilities to the front-page editor, the paper hired me on, full-time. Then, I got to work creating the current, classic WSJ hedcut style, as it exists today. Here is an early example of my work at WSJ…
hedcut of Bo Derek
The image above is scanned from original art in my collection. The movie “10” was all the rage back in 1980, and the corn-row hair-styling became De Rigueur. As you can see, the hedcut style was still in its infancy. We’ll continue with a succession of portraits that were published in the WSJ in the 80’s (and possibly beyond, as a hedcut would sometimes be used multiple times…
Hedcut of Oprah Winfrey
An early portrait of Oprah, who rose to unprecedented commercial success. The style was still being formalized. Note my “KS” signature, bottom right.
Hedcut of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Above, a hedcut portrait of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian Labor leader who went on to be President. He’s still in the news today. This is a very early depiction of the Brazilian politician, likely as he was agitating on behalf of his movement. It’s a strong portrait — the hedcut was established.
Hedcut of George Soros
Above, the often vilified George Soros, bogey-man of the Right. Here, we see him in his prime. Check out the enormous tie! Another good, solid drawing.
Hedcut of Dino de Laurentis
Here, a simple drawing of Italian-American film producer, Dino de Laurentis. Half-column format. I liked it enough to sign it (bottom-left).
Hedcut of a Horn-Player
What I miss about working at the WSJ: Steady work and pay, They always gave me total freedom when it came to playing with style. I experimented a lot, using various tricks of the pen to achieve my desired result. I like the image above for the treatment of detail in shadow. The brass instrument was an amusing diversion to capture. I don’t think the editors ever thought a piece I turned in was not good enough to publish.
Bowler, Glenn Allison
Amazingly, the image above ran as a half-column illustration — that’s about 1-¼” wide. I had fun trying to make the ball look heavy, solid and real.
Next, a strange one from the era: A machine that shapes up muscles with electricity. The snake oil that keeps on giving! This looks like a full-column, page one teaser!
Coarse Fisherman
It was always cool to draw interesting characters. Above, such a one. I suppose I liked this one enough to sign it (bottom left). Here, you see a coarse fisherman with his catch, a grin, and a rakish cigarette.
I’ll leave it here with one of my favorites: a portrait of the ‘Big Three’ at Yalta, bringing a close to the Second World War. I tried to show the exhaustion in the face of FDR, and gave accentuation to the smoke drifting up from his cigarette…
The Big Three at Yalta
