Charlie Allen Explains it in Black and White

Earlier this week, a reader asked if Charlie would explain a bit about how he made his black and white pictures. I put it to Charlie, and he graciously replied:

"Glad to help....but haven't a clue whether any of this is available these days. Something similar should be. Tools....plain old wooden pen holder. Pen points: 'Hunt' number 303 and Globe (little nib, like a bank pen)....Windsor Newton numbers 2 and 4 sable brushes....Higgins India ink, or equivalent..."

"...and, (this is no longer made, in fact) Whatman hot press, or surface No. 1, illustration board. Mother is....no....necessity is the mother of invention....and something could be conjured up these days to work, I'm sure!"

All that sounded great -- but I had a feeling the illustrators out there would want even more detail. So I pressed Charlie to elaborate - and, gentleman that he is, he accommodated me:

"WOW....A complete art lesson! OK.....one steel spot per day, at least. 3 to 4 days to complete the four illustrations. Thumbnails for a beginning, then a charcoal pencil comp for BBD&O..."


"... then part Lucy and part drawing on the finished board. As with cars, certain parts can be 'Lucied', (faces for example) and the rest interpreted, or drawn. Then the ink rendering..."


"...and the reason I loved Whatman Board was that it could be erased. I had an electric eraser....and used it a lot! Some illustrations resembled a 'battlefield'! Hope this helps....but, as I learned early on, you learn by doing. And every illustrator I knew had HIS way of getting the job done!

But Charlie wasn't finished sharing his wisdom just yet. So here's some more from the master of black and white:

"Now...take cover....art lesson coming! On every color illustration since the dawn of man, the illustrator has to juggle four main elements (like a four ball juggler)....drawing, composition or design, values, and color."


"Color is the least important....the other three equally important. Best example of this was Robert Fawcett. His color was of least importance....on the other three he excelled. On B&W line art, the elements are drawing, composition, values (if halftone screen is added) and texture. Texture is the added challenge....and a lot of artists never 'got it'. "


"Have no idea why I started all this...except to say a good color illustration should photograph well in B&W halftone....and I think these 24 sheet posters do."



Whew! Many thanks to Charlie Allen for sharing such a wealth of art and information with us this week! I know I'm not alone in saying how much we learned from - and enjoyed - his invaluable contributions.

My Charlie Allen Flickr set.

Charlie Allen on 'the other black and white'

When is a colour illustration actually black and white? When its a 'duo-tone'.


Clients hoping to save on the cost of four-colour printing, but wanting to create the illusion of colour would ask an illustrator for a black and white illustration, then surprint a single transparent colour over top. I've been around the business long enough to remember Rubylith and Amberlith - red or orange film held in place to an acetate backing sheet by, I guess, static cling. You'd tape a sheet of Rubylith over your black and white original, then cutting carefully (so as not to cut the acetate backing sheet) with an Exacto knife, peel up the areas that you didn't want any colour to surprint on. This set-up was sent to the film separator, with instruction for what percentage of a single colour the Rubylith mask should be printed at.

But Charlie didn't use that process...


"I think I used that colored film once or twice," he writes, " but never cared for it."

For the State Farm illustration below, Charlie explains his process:

"...both colors on this were done in B&W greys. No comps as I recall....so pretty much guessing on the combination or outcome."


"Most, I just painted in two colors....always B&W halftone, and then blue or whatever color. It was separated out the hard and more expensive way....color separation."

"Speaking of duo-tones, a Del Monte trade ad here [below]"...painted in two colors and color separated in reproduction. Not very good...my 'Al Parker' mood or mode. Bad management on grey values."


"If you sense some burn-out or fatigue on this...about right. I had been going full speed for 25 years by then, and was more interested in the home-built airplane I was working on. Luckily, it never got finished! Cheers.... Chas."

My Charlie Allen Flickr set.

Charlie Allen's 'Steel Lady' - in B&W

After reading Charlie's note that his clients on the long running series of ads for US Steel decided to introduce a woman spokesmodel, I knew I had to see some examples and hear what sounded like one of those classic ad industry stories.


Charlie generously complied, writing, "I can hear the wheels going when the steel and BBD&O execs got together...."


'nobody wants to look at steel products, plants, tractors, etc.! Let's introduce a pretty girl to soften things up....doesn't matter if she's out in a field or factory!'


"I took a slew of shots of a beautiful model, facing different directions, gesturing, smiling forever....and used those, almost forever!"


"She was really a gorgeous model....and I used her on many ads in the '50s and '60s. Cannot remember her name.....and of course she remained nameless on the steel ads. Just a fantasy of the ad execs of those days!"


"Today's ads are about as silly," Charlie concluded, "just 'up to date'."

My Charlie Allen Flickr set.

Charlie Allen's Black & White World

When I asked Charlie how long it typically took to do a black and white illustration, he responded, "Can't recall exactly, but a good B&W could take a day to get models, facts and sketches going, another two to four days to render."


In reference to the piece above, he writes, "A tired newspaper proof of a Pac Tel ad done in about 1960. A friend posed for the switchboard lady. An example of line film-pos [an acetate sheet with black line art printed on it] and halftone rendering underneath."



Charlie continues, "Two examples of dozens and dozens of steel product B&W's... a real bread and butter account. Later they all had to include, totally illogically, a pretty hostess-type icon of a gal, always the same one in the same skirt and blouse."


Tomorrow, we get a good look at Charlie's "Steel Lady".

My Charlie Allen Flickr set.

Charlie Allen in Black and White

Last September we spent a week looking at Charlie Allen's career. Since then, much to my delight, Charlie has continued to share many additional scans of his work with me (usually grouped around a specific theme) and he and I have had an ongoing correspondence about these pieces.

Recently, Charlie sent a raft of scans based around the theme of 'black and white illustration'. "This week may hound you with some B&W's," wrote Charlie, "something I enjoyed as much, if not more, than color....and there was more of it out here."


Charlie explained that due to smaller budgets and more limited printing options (almost all magazine publishing was located back east, for instance) much of the artwork done by illustrators in the San Franscisco market was black and white, and often line art instead of painting.


Charlie writes, "I welcomed change and different clients and agencies. First Pan Am ad [above] was in the '50s, the models were my wife and oldest daughter. Second Pan Am [below] were hired models and a fictitious Hawaiian restaurant. I did so many travel ads, lots about Hawaii...mainly, I think, because I was less expensive than sending an illustrator or photographer over there!"


Some of the famous illustrators we've looked at in recent weeks enjoyed a sort of celebrity status in their day, but its tremendously talented but less well known artists like Charlie who's work I find equally inspiring - and deserving of recognition. This week, we're fortunate to be able to take a look at "the black and white world of Charlie Allen", with accompanying commentary by the artist himself.

My Charlie Allen Flickr set.

Gilbert Bundy's Gals: "...always beauts, and no foolin' about them."

In Illustrating for the Saturday Evening Post, author Ashley Halsey Jr. describes the amusing troubles Gilbert Bundy encountered while working on the oil painting below:

Bundy actually borrowed a huge antique mahogany 'three-way looking glass' from a friend, damaged it while hauling it up two flights of stairs, then was unable to achieve the effect he wanted by using it.


"I finally posed my model backwards or sideways in three different poses, one for each panel of the mirror, and worked direct," Bundy told the author, "Then I combined the three to get the triple-reflection effect."

Because a mirror reverses the image, Bundy had to reverse each version of the girl... then discoverd at the last minute that the legs in one panel were in the wrong position. These are the sort of error details Post readers loved to write in about - and that Post editors took very seriously. In spite of the error looking the way Bundy had wanted it to, "with next to no time left, Bundy frantically got his painted lady to put her best leg forward and the illustration was saved."


Painted ladies and best legs were a common theme in Bundy's career.

"Until the New Look made a well-turned ankle a thing of the moment instead of the past, the hallmark of a Gilbert Bundy illustration was a shapley pair of legs at full length. They were always beauts, and no foolin' about them."


Just the other day, Kent Steine sent the pin-up above and writes, "This is from the Ted Saucier (cocktail mixing ) book, "Bottoms Up". The cover has the Dorn piece reprinted in numerous thumbnail sized repeats. The Bundy is contained within."

"As you well know illustrators were considered celebrities in the old days, and among many other things, often had cocktails named after them in places like the Stork Club, 21, The Iron Gate, and the Cafe DeArtiste (Cornwell and Mr. Reilly lived above, in the Hotel De Artiste)."

"Bundy's 'Piccadilly Circus', was a concoction of: jigger of dry gin, 1/3 French vermouth, dash of absinthe, dash of grenadine, ice. . . shake well, strain into a cocktail glass."

Speaking of girls, booze and social clubs, one last point of note is Gilbert Bundy's long association with Esquire magazine, for which Bundy began producing cartoons in the early 1930's. In The Illustrator in America, author Walt Reed credits Bundy's "deftly drawn, risqué humor" as being integral to the early success of that magazine.


As luck would have it, my pal Mike Lynch posted some scans just this week from the Esquire 25th Anniversary Cartoon Album, including one by Gilbert Bundy.

My Gilbert Bundy Flickr set.

A Boy, a Girl... a Boat by Gilbert Bundy

Didn't really have time to write a post today, but I hate missing a deadline so here's are a couple of great double page spreads by Gilbert Bundy, oddly enough both featuring a boy, a girl and a boat. G'night!







My Gilbert Bundy Flickr set