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Home > Essays

Essays in

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

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.

Making Meaning of Illustration

Michele Bogart, Ph.D. | October 8, 2018 - Thoughts on illustration from the Rockwell Center Society of Fellows' blog series on illustration.

Thoughts on Illustration from the Rockwell Center Society of Fellows

Stephanie Haboush Plunkett | October 1, 2018 - Thoughts on Illustration from the Rockwell Center Society of Fellows' blog series on illustration.

Design and Illustration in the Record Business

Michael Goldstein | August 10, 2018 - An introduction to the designers and illustrators who advanced the importance of album covers and record packaging in the modern music era.

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."

Remembering Uncle Andy

James Warhola | April 27, 2017 - Illustrator James Warhola comments on the exhibition "Inventing America: Rockwell and Warhol," organized by Norman Rockwell Museum.

Artist in the Third Dimension

Chris Spollen | April 17, 2017 - Chris Spollen's inspirations on his artistic journey to create three dimensional art.

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 Life of a Still Image: Comics vs. Animation

Peter Murphey | July 7, 2016 - An examination of the animated and manga versions of Katsuhiro Otomo's "Akira."

Re-Covering America

Wayne Fields | February 10, 2016 - In post-war America, illustrator Al Parker creates a modern image of women on the covers of national magazines.

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.

Pyle as a Picture Maker

James Gurney | September 16, 2015 - Pyle regarded the picture as a stage, and figures as actors in a drama.

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.

Chasing the Muse: Norman Rockwell and the Legacy of Howard Pyle

Stephanie Haboush Plunkett | April 13, 2015 - This essay explores illustrator Howard Pyle's influence on Norman Rockwell and offers consideration of their comparative works.

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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