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Home > Essays

Essays in Europe

Engaging essays on a wide-variety of illustration-based subjects by knowledgable authors, scholars, artists, and students can be explored here.

Accidentally Swedish: Josef Frank’s Design Theory in His Pattern Design

Paloma Diaz-Dickson | February 16, 2021 - Josef Frank was an Austrian-born Swedish architect, furniture designer, and textile designer. In addition to his professional practice, Frank wrote extensively about design.

The Hidden Emotions in M.C. Escher’s Artwork

Dongyan Xu | February 16, 2021 - Contrary to M.C. Escher’s statement that his work contains no hidden meanings, the artist’s experiences, emotions, and worldview are reflected in the artwork he made throughout his life.

The Drawing Methods and Techniques of Peter Paul Rubens

Siyuan David Zhou | January 14, 2021 - A study and explanation of Rubens’s drawing techniques through an interpretation of his drawings.

Belonging to the Realm of Ideas: A Look at Goya In Comparison to the Modern Day Illustration Practices of Andrea Kowch, Amy Cutler, and Shaun Tan

Jordan Cannon | January 14, 2021 - Francisco Goya utilized fantastical elements to critique, communicate, and introspect. Today, Kowch, Cutler, and Tan exhibit these same focuses within their art through the development of their own magical realities.

How Recent Technology Impacts Audiences and Artists: A Study on Social Media and Big Data.

Yuanyuan Zhou | January 13, 2021 - Social media's influence on audience preference of artworks, and how big data inspired artists to create new designs.

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.

Enchanted: Illustrated Fairy Tales

Jesse M. Kowalski | September 23, 2020 - Images depicted alongside centuries-old children's stories reinforced the message conveyed within the tales.

Fashion Illustration from the 16th Century to Now

Sarah Goethe-Jones | March 12, 2019 - Fashion illustration not only captures nuance through gesture, but transforms the graphic representation of a garment into an object of desire.

Producing Album Cover Art for Clients in the Music Business

Michael Goldstein | July 19, 2018 - Album covers have benefited from the talents of the people who have worked on them, the tools they had available, and the dynamics of the “Popular Culture” at the time they were created.

Children’s Book Illustrators in the Golden Age of Illustration

Corryn Kosik | June 26, 2018 - A look at some of the most influential illustrators working in 19th and 20th century England during the Golden Age of Illustration.

Inside Pulp Magazines: Detective Mysteries, Weird Tales, and Fantastic Adventures

Jesse M. Kowalski | January 11, 2018 - Printed on cheap paper, pulp magazines were an inexpensive alternative to "slicks" like "The Saturday Evening Post."

Hanna-Barbera: The Architects of Saturday Morning

Jesse M. Kowalski | January 19, 2017 - A history of the world's longest animation partnership, which led the move of animated shorts from film to television and created Saturday Morning Cartoons.

The Curious Case of the Stolen Composition

Heather Campbell Coyle | September 18, 2015 - Inspired by John Sloan's "The Sherlock Holmes Puzzle," Heather Campbell Coyle explores the visual history of Sherlock Holmes.

Reflecting the Soul of a Nation: Polish Poster Art

Frederick Schneider | July 25, 2015 - The posters created in Poland from the 1950s through the 1980s represent a body of work critically important to the histories of visual communication, graphic design, and illustration.

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.

The Art of Hoarding

| January 10, 2015 - Aubrey Beardsley writes about the relative value of commercial art vs. fine art.

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- Norman Rockwell

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