While flipping through some old Saturday Evening Post mags today I came across this great little anecdote about Austin Briggs at the back of the May 9, 1953 issue:A short piece in the "Keeping Posted" column about the process by which the artist arrived at the final composition for his story illustration therein, and one of his pencil roughs - apparently sketched on location, so to speak.
The Saturday Evening Post often ran these entertaining little "look behind the scenes" articles about their artists...
Its pretty fascinating to see the extent to which Briggs went to achieve the desired effect. If you'd like to read this short article, you can find a legible sized version here. Just click on the "All Sizes" tab.
It's interesting that in the final version of the piece , he never really pushes the perspective to the degree he did in the rough linear.
ReplyDeleteOur POV is more or less just above ledge. I imagine this was to accomodate showing more of the woman in the window to give the piece more context. It creates more tension.
I think you're right about that, Dom - that more extreme angle would have made it too difficult for the viewer to get a good read on the woman, the perspective in that corner being so extreme.
ReplyDeleteWow!
ReplyDeleteLoved your Briggs articles.
Makes me glad to be an artist...
-T
I'm discovering that, like Robert fawcett, Briggs has that effect on illustrators, Toby. ;-)
ReplyDeleteIf you enjoyed this series on Briggs, be sure to check out David Apatoff's latest post at Illustration Art
Leif, just to complete the all-too-perfect connection here, the model for the man hanging onto the side of the building was none other than Robert Fawcett! He and Briggs were great friends and lived close to each other up in Westport.
ReplyDeleteWow! Now that is cool, David. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall ( so to speak ) in Westport during those days...
ReplyDelete:-)