Black and White Illustration

Group counseling. Or another boring, unproductive meeting, notable only for the lack of a table.

My biggest early influence was Francis Lee Jaques’ scratchboard art. Scratchboard involves painting too much ink over a chalk-covered tagboard and scraping it away wherever you don’t want it. This is a scratchboard illustration.

“Rubylith” (wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubylith): a layer of clear film with a translucent red lamination on top. You place it over a photo you want to illustrate and “trace” the picture underneath with an X-acto knife and peel away the unwanted red laminate. You end up with black (red) and white (transparent) line art. The fact that it’s cut out lends it a certain rough, handmade quality. Nowadays just done in Photoshop.

I have a lot of recreation time tied up in kayaking, mostly on Lake Superior, so this illustration was more fun than the usual run-of-the-mill stuff I draw.

Done digitally.

Long before all the trick, techy survivalist tools came out there was the camper’s standard: the Swiss Army knife. There were several models which offered a variety of features: a scissors, a tiny sawblade, tweezers… Depending on your drinking proclivities, the corkscrew might be mandatory. Bottle opener also included.

Pretty minimal.

I did this for the Superior Hiking Trail in the mid-1990s (yes, that long ago) for a story on trail building. Truly, the guy looks more like a motorcycle gang member than a dedicated outdoorsman.

This was done for a store display in the Ankeny, Iowa Duluth Trading store. It’s a remake of an old John Deere owner’s manual illustration. It had to be redone in painstaking detail since it was blown up to be displayed at an enormous size: seven feet wide. Gouache, pen and ink and digital.

Not actually cut out of rubylith, this one was done digitally.

Just a scratchboard potted plant.

I am a fan of coffee but not so much of the gas station variety. These stovetop “Moka” models make a fair espresso substitute.

A pencil illustration for a log-home building business’s brochure.

I did this for the Duluth-Superior Area Community Foundation (there’s a long name) and it’s the perfect symbol for investment: you plant the seed and look what comes up.

Done for Essentia Health-Polinsky Medical Rehabilitation Center: from a patient worksheet on wrist surgery recovery.

So here’s what I think I know: there are pancake flippers and rubber scrapers, and both live in the spatula category.

Several of these rubylith items were done for the Blue Heron kitchen shop (very long ago) including this one.

Much the same as the man shaving, it’s supposed to look retro.

These are very preliminary sketches showing the Purnell Hoodie in various body positions. As mentioned in the final, color version, Purnell has its roots in wind energy and developed this hoodie specifically for wind turbine tower maintenance folks. Pencil.

This is what trying to rip off the 1950s looks like. Because we all know how sexy a man’s face covered in shaving cream is.

This is Tower Hall, the main building of the College of St. Scholastic. Rubylith.

It’s just a little trout tree ornament, cut out of rubylith (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubylith) for an old Christmas shopping flyer for Blue Heron Trading Company back in the mid-90s.

Although this is really closer to Bruce Morser’s “technical” (my term, not his) drawing style, it’s monotone though not strictly black and White.

Done for Essentia Health-Polinsky Medical Rehabilitation Center: from a patient worksheet, “Shoulder Mobility”.

This is a diagram from the Kollath+Stensaas Moths and Caterpillars of the North Woods field guide showing the external part of caterpillars.