A HANDSOME HAND AT DRAWING

When I walked into Robin Lauersdorf's booth at the Cherry Creek Arts Festival in 2022 my jaw nearly dropped to the floor. Here at last was a visual artist that was creating something truly dynamic with pencils, something that I could see myself trying to create, or wanting to create at least, assuming of course that I had anywhere near the skills and imagination that was needed to do so.

Lauersdorf's meticulously drawn, "Escher" inspired graphite illustrations are filled with playful illusion, and practically burst three-dimensionally from of each piece of deceptively taped down paper. They are remarkable too in that they are precisely detailed, yet non-cluttered and cleanly rendered. My wife immediately sensed that I was going to buy one of his prints, and she was right! --so instead she gifted me one as a birthday present. Oh, let me count the ways!

 

This, out of the more than a dozen pieces on display, was the one I chose. They were certainly more imaginative ones in Lauersdorf's booth, but this particular one, which happened to be one of his earliest drawings in the "Escher" mode, was just too attractive to pass up considering my affinity for sculptures, statues, and statuettes. It felt inspirational as well, which manifested itself with my enrolling in several drawing and painting classes since its acquisition.

Lauersdorf explained the history behind his so called "Self Portrait" this way: "Often, I am asked how I do my drawings, so I decided to create a drawing that illustrates my process. I didn’t realize how successful the illusion was until an older gentleman came up to me at an art fair and discreetly told me that I had accidentally left my photograph taped to my drawing! At first, I thought he was joking, but I had actually fooled him into thinking the drawing was real. This incident opened my eyes into the ways I could play with reality in my pencil drawings—the gentleman had a much greater impact on my career than he will ever realize!"
 

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I almost bought this print too that day, and now wished I would have. But as fortune would have it prints of this drawing and most of his other works are still readily available through Lauersdorf's website, priced between $50 and $100 dollars (a link to it can be found further down this page). The image area of each print is 15 x 20 inches in size, although I think larger ones can be ordered. His original works vary in actual size and are priced between $4K and $18K. The above piece is called "Waiting For My Ship To Come In", and its backstory is interesting: First Lauersdorf had to build an actual model to photograph so he could get the lighting and shadows correct. It began by wrapping coat-hangars with paper towels and tin foil to replicate the Kraken's tentacles, and bending each one to where they would be the most effective at reinforcing a three-dimensional illusion. Then the actual drawing began, starting with preliminary sketches. After several weeks, perhaps as much as two or three months, the final drawing was completed. As you can see, Lauersdorf has brilliantly included just the right amount of details to further the illusion that the Kraken was actually pulling the ship off the paper and into the water underneath. Also among the amazing details are a floating barrel of rum, and three sailors: one rowing a boat, one seized by a tentacle, and one swimming away from a shark.


BELOW are a few more of Lauersdorf's finished creations, including a framed print of one of his many advantageous "University Drawings", showcasing its unique potential for alumni.

While visiting Lauersdorf's website, I found this informative statement from him: 

"To many artists, drawing is used as a preliminary means to an end. Through years of meticulous work, I have tried to show that the pencil can be used as an art form in itself.

Through close observation, I render my graphite pencil drawings as detailed and realistic as possible. Without the use of color, my drawings must stand on design and value alone. Opposed to pen and ink, pencil allows me to obtain all of the subtle values ranging from very light to very dark. Charcoal, being very soft, doesn’t allow for fine details.

My subject matter often varies. I find that anything is interesting to draw as long as I can be creative in the designing of the piece. The designing process can take longer than the actual drawing itself. Because of the detail, which I try to achieve, my drawings can take up to three months before I feel satisfied. Like most artists, I have a vision of what I want to draw and must research, photograph and sketch until I have illustrated what I envision.

Ideas for my drawings come in many forms. In par­ticular, I have always been inspired by the work of MC Escher. Many of my pieces play with reality and illusion like his did. I also create drawings of colleges and universities across the nation that allow alumni to display their pride in their institution." 

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Here's a beautiful painting I came across that speaks to Lauersdorf's broader output, and complete mastery of mixed media.

If you would like to order prints or buy an original piece of art from Robin Lauersdorf, you can do so through his personal website. He also has a 12" X 12" hardback book of his art available for sale, titled Wishful Thinking. It highlights 31 drawings intricately explained across 88 pages. It represents 15 years of the man's artistic life, offering insights into the inspirations and challenges behind each drawing. The cost is $74.
 

M. C. Escher's famous "Drawing Hands", seen above, is what helped inspire Lauersdorf and countless other professional artists and illustrators. It was drawn in 1948 when Escher was 50 years old.  

Escher was a Dutch graphic artist who made woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints (monochrome prints), many of which were influenced by his love of mathematics. Escher was born in 1898, but it wasn't until very late in his life that he garnered any real attention from the art world. In 1970 he received his first retrospective exhibition, sadly though just two years before his death at the age of 73. After his passing he became widely appreciated by everyone, from publishers to comic illustrators and fine artists. Since then his artwork has been seen repeatedly on book covers, albums, magazines and possibly even advertisements. 


BELOW are a few "Escher" inspired book covers from other artists, and one preceding 1948 that may have actually inspired Escher!

The Beast Must Die by Nicholas Blake was published in hardback by Harper & Brothers in 1938. The jacket art was produced by Leo Manso. Manso created jacket art for most of the major hardback publishers from the 1930s on, adding paperback houses to his client list in the mid-1940s. At some point later in his life he taught art at the Cooper Union for Advancement of Science and Art, and also at Columbia University and New York University. As a fine artist he was noted especially for his colorful abstract paintings.

 
'A wickedly brilliant plot underscores this murder-mystery in that rare find---a really original contribution to detective fiction. It is the story of a father who dedicates himself to finding and killing the road-hog who murdered his son. And it is told in cultivated prose, with the subtlety and deftness that mark Nicholas Blake (the pseudonym of C. Day Lewis) as a writer of achieved standing. A remarkable English prose has already stamped THE BEAST MUST DIE as a good novel and an extraordinarily good thriller, and the best of Mr. Blake's four detective novels.'

On Her Majesty's Secret Service by Ian Fleming was published in hardback by Jonathan Cape of London in 1961. Richard Chopping produced the jacket art. He was a British illustrator and author of natural history and children's books. His most famous covers however are those that he did for Ian Fleming's James Bond spy thrillers, between 1957 and 1966. There were nine altogether, all similarly executed in Chopper's realistic, three-dimensional, trompe-l'oeil style.

"It was one of those Septembers when it seemed that the summer would never end..." But it did end and winter came in a lethal welter of mystery, bloodshed and multiple death amidst the snow. this, the eleventh chapter in the biography of James Bond, is one of the longest. It is also the most enthralling. Really the most? Really the most.'

A Day in the Life was edited by Gardner Dozois and published in paperback by Perennial in 1973. The cover art was produced by Roger Zimmerman. Zimmerman was a graphic designer and collage artist, who worked primarily for Doubleday producing jacket art on their science fiction and fantasy hardback lineup between 1962 and 1982. Other than that not much can be said about him. Doziois, on the other hand, is, or rather was (he died in 2018), well known in the SFF world as an editor, author, and popular convention goer and guest. In preparation for this post I recently read at the website Black-Gate an interesting article about SFF anthology editing. Here's what Dozois had to say about the above book:  "My very first book actually was an anthology, a reprint anthology called A DAY IN THE LIFE, all the way back in 1970. Even today, it’s almost unheard of for an unknown new writer to be able to sell an anthology, particularly a prestigious hardcover anthology. I managed it, I think, because of the slush-reading work I was doing, which was getting good word-of-mouth in the tight little SF publishing world of the time, because of the cachet of being a “hot new writer,” and because of some of the social contacts I’d made. Victoria Schochet, for instance, I knew socially, from parties and conventions, and she’d just taken over as the new editor of the SF line at Harper & Row, and, in keeping with the revolutionary nature of the times, wanted new and exciting kinds of books to revolutionize and perhaps radicalize her line. I proposed a Hot New Anthology to her, and, since I was a Hot New Writer, and so theoretically tapped into the Zeitgeist, she bought it. A DAY IN THE LIFE has been out of print for decades, but it is now available for reading again, as an ebook from Baen."

Contents:
Introduction (1972) - essay by Gardner Dozois.
Slow Tuesday Night (1965) - short story by R. A. Lafferty.
The Lady Margaret (1966) - novelette by Keith Roberts.
Mary (1964) - novelette by Damon Knight.
Driftglass (1967) - short story by Samuel R. Delany.
A Happy Day in 2381 (1970) - short story by Robert Silverberg.
This Moment of the Storm (1966) - novelette by Roger Zelazny.
The Haunted Future (1959) - novelette by Fritz Leiber.
On the Storm Planet (1965) - novella by Cordwainer Smith.

How to Draw What You See was published by Watson Guptill of New York in 1972, and it has been reprinted several times since. The jacket art, text, and all interior illustrations were produced by Rudy de Reyna. De Reyna was born in Spain and educated there, as well as in England, Mexico, and the United States. He began his career by producing movie posters and displays for Hollywood studios. After that he moved to Westport, Connecticut to teach fine art at the Famous Artists School. Eventually he settled in Sandwich, Massachusetts (Cape Cod), where he continued to produce both fine art and commercial art, and devise additional instructional books for art students.

'Everyone wishes that he could faithfully reproduce the world around him--wishes that he could draw what he sees. Here is a book that teaches you how.
    Rudy de Reyna believes that there are only four basic shapes in nature--the cube, the cylinder, the cone, and the sphere. Every object is based on one of these geometric shapes, although the shape itself may be greatly modified. Once you can see the basic shape of an object, you can draw that object no matter how much detail it may contain.
    The author devotes Part One of his book to the fundamentals of drawing. In clear, concise, and lavishly illustrated projects--which the reader is encouraged to try out for himself--de Reyna presents the basic structure of objects, eye level, perspective, and putting basic forms to gether. The projects in Part one are arranged so that each one is slightly more complex than the one before, and deal with such drawing principles as the horizon plane, light and shade, translating local color to black and white, drawing with charcoal, drawing a still life, drawing outdoors, drawing the figure, and drawing children.
    In Part Two, the author explains the use of media not usually described in a book on drawing. The reader learns how to "draw" in painting media like wash (transparent watercolor), opaque watercolor, and acrylic, which are used here only in their black and white forms. De Reyna discusses each medium--wash, opaque, and acrylic--separately and carefully details the materials needed for working in each one. He presents the basic techniques of each medium and provides exercises to help the student gain proficiency in handling them. Then, in detailed step-by-step demonstrations the author renders still lifes, landscapes, and portraits in each medium, putting into practice all the techniques that he has described.
    The author also explains the use of ink for rendering landscapes. He shows how interesting effects can be created by using several different media in one drawing. And de Reyna stresses the importance of choosing the most suitable medium.
    Throughout the projects, de Reyna shares with the reader his many interesting experiences as an artist and teacher. The author's illustrations appear on virtually every page. 176 pages. 7x10. Over 200 b&w illustrations. Index.'
 

One Man Show by Michael Innes (aka J. I. M. Stewart) was published in paperback by Perennial in 1983. Irving Freeman produced the cover art. Freeman is a graphic designer and illustrator who produced scores of book and magazine covers and advertising art in the late 20th century for clients such as Harper Collins, William Morrow, Perennial, Simon & Schuster, Pfizer, Major League Baseball, NBC-TV, New York Times and New York Magazine, among others. He studied under Arthur Foster, the son of the great Hal Foster, at the Art Students League in New York City, and also at Ruskin School of Art in Oxford, England, and the School of Visual Arts in NYC.

'Sir John Appleby of Scotland Yard is unwittingly swept up into an imbroglio with the smart set when he attends a private gallery opening with his wife and in an astonishing course of events deals with paintings stolen from an aristocrat's mansion, a mad chase, and of course, the inevitable murder.'

"ONE MAN SHOW begins with a stunning description of a lecture by Mervyn Twist, the art critic, to a group of people in the gallery where the show opening takes place. The account of the facial expressions of the listeners is a marvel, and the ensuing events live up to this flourish of virtuosity... Innes' undoubted masterpiece." --- Jacques Barzun & Wendell Hertig Taylor, A Catalogue of Crime.

This charming illustration, an oil on canvas approximately 28" X 19" in size, was produced by Birney Lettick. Lettick attended Yale University Art School, where, along with being taught the basic fundamentals of a classic art education, he learned anatomy by actually dissecting cadavers (ew!). Lettick was primarily a commercial artist and art teacher for most of his life, working in advertising and publishing where he graced many a popular magazine and bestselling book. His satiric covers for The National Lampoon have become the stuff of legend. He was also one heckuva movie poster artist, and some of the biggest grossing films of the 1970's and 80's can at least in some part be attributed to his deft hand. 

[© February, 2024, Jeffersen]