Andrew Loomis' are probably the most popular. We've sold 141 copies of
Figure Drawing For All It's Worth, alone (and we have six more in
stock). In abridged form from Walter T. Foster Art Books, it's still in
print today - 55 years after publication. That's a pretty ringing
endorsement for his teaching skills.Loomis was born in 1892 in Syracuse, New York. Walt and Roger Reed in The Illustrator in America say that "it was a visit to the nearby studio of Howard Chandler Christy that made him decide to seek for himself an artist's career." He studied in New York at the Art Students League under George Bridgman and F.V. du Mond when he was 19 and went back to the Midwest (he grew up in Zanesville, Ohio) in 1915 to Chicago to work in an art studio there. He continued his education at the Chicago Art Institute.
After
military service in World War I, Loomis worked for a couple of advertising
agencies before opening his own studio at 360 North Michigan Avenue in
downtown Chicago where he listed his "subjects" as "Character Studies,
Figures, Historical Subjects, Interiors, Covers, Posters, Portraits, Still
Life, Landscapes" and his "mediums" as "Black and white, Charcoal, Color,
Dry Brush, Oil, Watercolor, Pastel, Wash." At left is a sample of his work
from 1928.
At
right is his only cover for The Saturday Evening Post, from 1935.
(Image from The Illustrator in America: 1880-1980) He produced
commercial art his entire career, but in researching my collection to find
images to include here, his work remained maddeningly elusive. It was as a
teacher, more than as an illustrator, that he made a very lasting impression
upon the artists that came after him.
He
taught at the American Academy of Art, in Chicago, during the 1930s
and that it was there he perfected the teaching techniques that he codified
in his first book, Fun With a Pencil, in 1939. The
self-portrait/caricature at the top of this page is the final illustration
in that book. It's 120 pages in b&w and blue and the focus is cartooning,
though there are lots of very solid illustration tips as well. And it really
is fun! The tone is light-hearted, but the information is
carefully and skillfully presented. It's no surprise that it was popular.
And it was very popular! By 1943 it had gone through six printings. This response was sufficient to induce Loomis to write another instructional book that year, the ever-popular Figure Drawing For All It's Worth, mentioned above. I use the phrase "ever-popular" advisedly as by 1973 the book was in its 25th printing, and the fact that we have sold so many copies is due to the continued demand from artists, young and old, who want to take advantage of the seminal content. It's an amazing book that actually lives up to its reputation. It's 204 pages of solid anatomy for illustrators, profusely illustrated, primarily with pencil drawings. By 1946 it was in its 12th printing.
The
next book would be his masterpiece. The 1947 Creative Illustration
was aimed at the professional illustrator. It was 300 pages divided into
seven sections: Line, Tone and Color were the three
introductory parts. Then came the four sections that make this book still
relevant today - Telling the Story, Creating Ideas, Fields
of Illustration, and Experimenting and Studies.
The
Color section was in color - definitely not a common
practice at that time. The page at right shows a variety of tonal studies
from palettes based on color schemes. The book is filled with instructions,
tips, insider experiences, and incredible illustrations.
Telling the Story leads off with the powerful image at left, a story in itself. Every chapter, every page, every picture is prime information for the artist and Loomis manages to convey it clearly and concisely. Creative Illustration is a dynamite book!
In 1951 he released Successful Drawing with more advanced fundamentals. This title was re-released in a slightly altered form in 1961 as Three-Dimensional Drawing.
Drawing
the Head and Hands was next, in 1956. It took the information presented
in Fun With a Pencil and Figure Drawing For All It's Worth,
expanded it, clarified it, and presented it in 155 pages of new text and
art. The importance of this title in the Loomis canon can't be emphasized
enough, and students are still clamoring for copies, with prices over $100
on even the most available titles.
Which leads us inevitably into the question of why aren't these books being reprinted? All I can say is "I don't know." I've heard all kinds of rumors and speculations, but the purpose of these pages is not to deal with anything other than facts, so it's still as much a mystery to me as it is to you. The Walter T. Foster company seems to have some access to the material from some of the books and Bud Plant Comic Art has a few titles available. Maybe the W.T. Foster people know something they could share with us?
The elusive and intriguingly titled Eye of the Painter and Elements of Beauty is Loomis' last book, published posthumously in 1961, two years after his death. It's his treatise on how an artist perceives beauty and harmony. It's an interesting book, but it's not for casual perusal and doesn't have all that much Loomis art. It's mainly illustrated with samples of the work of fine artists. It is also extremely rare. In the same span that we've sold 141 Figure Drawings, we've sold nine Eye of the Painter's.
Information supplied by: http://www.bpib.com/illustrat/loomis.htm