Engaging essays on a wide-variety of illustration-based subjects by knowledgable authors, scholars, artists, and students can be explored here.
Flapper Fashion: Illustrating the Garments Worn by the Modern Woman during the Jazz Age (1919-1942)
Halle Davies | August 28, 2025 - The Jazz Age (1919-1942) spanned over two decades of women challenging how they perceived themselves. They questioned their roles in the social world, their value in the workplace, and their position of power in romantic endeavors.
The Red Rose Girls: An alliance for artistic success
Barbara Rundback Venus van Ness | March 8, 2021 - During an era when women were expected to get married, raise children, and manage a household, Elizabeth Shippen Green (1871-1954), Jessie Wilcox Smith (1863-1935), and Violet Oakley (1874-1961) chose to pursue careers in the arts.
Santa in Illustration
Venus van Ness | December 21, 2020 - Images of Santa Claus in the 1800s do not portray the round, jolly, bearded man that we know today. Throughout the latter half of the 19th century, images of Santa morphed through a variety of looks.
Narrative Realism and Pictorial Composition in the Work of Howard Pyle
Frederick Schneider | June 29, 2015 - Narrative realism is an approach to illustration that engages viewers with the content of a story through composition, value, color, body language, facial expression, and the realistic portrayal of actions, events, and character interaction.