Graves Gladney Article

Written by Tom Roberts

An article I've co-authored with David Saunders on artist Graves Gladney is in this month's issue of Illustration.

 

 

Graves Gladney is an interesting illustrator. Classically trained at art schools in Europe, he tried to bring a different feel to the field of pulp cover illustration only to meet resistance from the art directors who wanted no changes. Gladney brought a slick adult approach to his work, and expected that to be desirable and appreciated. His assignment as cover artist on The Shadow was a marquee job, and Street & Smith was not about to tinker with their bread and butter title, insisting he keep the "house style" in his cover designs, both in composition and subject matter, as it had appeared by the preceeding artist on the magazine. These restrictions he came to resent, and what he deemed catering to childish tastes.

Anyway, pick up the issue if you can.

Creativity is a Funny Thing

Written by Tom Roberts

I am not a believer in waiting to be inspired by “the muse.” As a commercial artist you have to be able to produce on a consistent basis, rain or shine, sickness or health. Deadlines are deadlines and you cannot sit around until you feel it’s the right moment to create something.

But I do find it odd that no matter how many years you have drawn, no matter how advanced you are in your skills or talents, you still have “bad draw days.”

I have asked this question to nearly every artistic friend I know, and all are in agreement. The dreaded “bad draw day.” It if was just on Monday or let’s say Friday afternoons, you could perhaps expect it or plan around it. But that is never the case. They can occur out of the blue when the day before has been perfectly fine. Or sometimes after a lunch break. Nothing looks right. Nothing comes out right. You hand does not even seem to move right across the paper fluently.

I put the question to Mort Walker and (to paraphrase) he replied, “Sure! You bet. After fifty years of Beetle Bailey you’d think I’d know how to draw him. But some days nothing comes out right. It’s just a struggle.

”What causes them? It’s anybody’s guess. Is the subconscious distracted? Are you secretly worrying about something or thinking about something else? Did you sleep poorly? Are your biorhythms off? Is it the phase of the moon? The wrong celestial alignment? Any explanation is as good as another because there seems to be no consistency.

Whatever the cause, I hate bad draw days. Thankfully today was not one of them as I had cover sketches to get done.

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