Errol Morris

Rummaging through my work, picking out a piece about which to post, I happened upon Errol Morris.

He is perhaps best known as a filmmaker, with works including Gates of Heaven, The Thin Blue Line, and The Fog of War, which won Mr. Morris the Academy Award for Documentary Feature in 2004.

In 2007, I was lucky enough to illustrate him for the Wall Street Journal.

It was my second piece for the WSJ, and coincidentally enough, was a phone call received on my birthday.

The turnaround time for this piece was 4 days from initial phone call to final art delivery.

The client provided some reference and I did a little research to scour up a few more images with which to use.

The format of this piece was to fit a very narrow space, with roughly 3/4 of the body requested.

With all this in mind, it was time to get started.

"But, who is that handsome devil from the neck down?" I can hear you thinking.

Dusting off my sports coat and semi-dressy attire, I set up my camera and shot myself for the torso.

My photo shoots are all about taking lots of photos from many angles and leaving some to chance. I prefer overkill, weeding the shots down, later, allowing room for those unexpected "accidents," and coming back for a follow-up shoot, if necessary.

I sent off 3 sketches, with the rectangle designating the trim area.

#1


#2


#3


The client chose #3, but with a camera in-hand, rather than the film reel.



New sketch, and with approval, I was now at Tuesday, and off to complete the final art with 2 days left.

Tuesday night and Wednesday are spent completing the art and uploading the final for retrieval first thing Thursday morning.

The WSJ uses a portion of the color work for their website and the work in black and white for the newspaper.

It was a fun project as well as a very nice birthday gift.

•Visit Errol Morris' website»

Allan Burch is an award-winning illustrator and portrait artist, providing solutions for editorial, book, advertising, and institutional projects.
•View more of his work»
•Sign-up for his newsletter»

Lust Caution

Ang Lee is the 3rd portrait I've done for The Wall Street Journal's Hit List section. It's reproduced in color for the website and in grayscale for the weekend edition newspaper. I'm finding the unique challenges that come with these portraits are: doing something interesting in the strong vertical format, creating a definable edge for text to wrap, and making an illustration that will not turn into a gray blob when reproduced in grayscale on newsprint. With Ang, I tried a few things that I hoped would attain these solutions.

It all starts with the sketch and working out his pose. I set up my tripod and shot myself in a number of staged poses at various degrees of overhead perspective. Perspective is always interesting to look at and I thought it would allow me to get more into the alloted space as well as add interest. As I set my timer and ran back to take my position, I heard the click of my shutter about mid-stride. After the initial annoyance from wasting a shot had washed away, an idea hit me. I bet I could achieve some good candid-style pictures with immediacy and active energy by moving into or out of the frame and letting the pose happen. I liked the idea and took a host of shots with this mindset. The task then becomes taming the shots so I'm not flailing with arms askew as I race into the photo. I sufficiently tamed myself, and was rewarded with plenty of interesting vertical compositions.

As I'm working up my sketches, I'm also considering clean value patterns that are tilted toward opposite ends of the spectrum. An overall pattern that is somewhat graphic with strong discernible shapes is what I'm after. Only limited midtones and extraneous value that might push a newsprint illustration to mush. 5 sketches later, I had a nice selection of staged and unstaged poses to send for approval.

Lately, I've decided I need to get myself agitated, artistically, in order to loosen up and release any tension that might come from starting an illustration. Tension can be the death knell of one's painting. So, I popped in my most agitating CD and let the self-doubt evaporate as my earphones block out the world and the brushes, with a tension-free hand, agitatingly sculpt the red oxide across the board.

Of the portraits I've done for The Wall Street Journal, I think this one is my favorite. It achieves my goals, and I came away with some additional knowledge that I'll apply to future work—always signs of a successful experience. The Wall Street Journal folks are always great to work with, too.

detail


sketches



Allan Burch is an award-winning illustrator and portrait artist, providing solutions for editorial, book, advertising, and institutional projects.
•View more of his work»
•Sign-up for his newsletter»
•Purchase prints»