Yesterday, I challenged myself to do some drawings in a
mid-20
th century pen & ink style. Before starting, I took a close
look at the works of Paul Brown (1893-1958). Brown was a respected children’s illustrator,
well-known for his horse art. Brown’s line work is typical of the time. accurate but fast, with
most of his lines being gestural, rather than decorative. The sparseness of his
line work typifies the black & white illustration and advertising art of
the 1930’s through 1960’s - very “modern” and streamlined.
from what I can tell, Brown preferred a brush to a pen for his ink drawings. This is clear to me from the variation of line widths and the types of marks he used in his drawings. His
people tended to be pretty generic, but his horses and ponies showed great
character.
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| Horse illustration by Paul Brown |
I decided to treat my drawings as if part of a children’s
book called, “My Life with Percy.” All are done in brush and ink. True to the
style, I left the people generic, and made my colorful horse the star of the
drawings.Ultimately, I tinted them to make them look like they were from an old children's book.
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| My Life with Percy: Dad visits and brings a bag of apples. |
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| My Life with Percy: Ayla takes Percy for a ride. |
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| My Life with Percy: Percy and I go to a dressage clinic and are stars. |
Having started the illustrations for "My Life with Percy," I suppose I should consider actually writing the book. Might be fun, at that. *chuckle*
