History & Practice Session IX: Western Post-War Illustration

Bob Peak

Bob Peak

Bob Peak

Bob Peak was an American commercial illustrator, having had his work published in Time Magazine, Sports Illustrated, and TV Guide. Peak's illustrations use vibrant colours throughout, producing a lively and energetic atmosphere to the life contained within the painting as well as drawing the viewers' attention to the pieces. The brush marks add a sense of movement to the work due to their sharp and angular strokes that jump across the page.
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​Peak produced many illustrations for advertisements such as the one shown top right. They contained scenes of everyday life except he presented them from unique angles that wouldn't be considered the norm. These angles add an interesting dynamic to the illustration which holds the viewers' attention longer than if it were drawn from a standard front-facing perspective, extremely beneficial for an advertisement.

Bob Peak

The illustration of the man in the shirt was created as an advertisement for the clothing being worn. By selecting to only detail the shirt rather than the full figure, the viewers main focus can only be on the item being sold which would work great from a marketing point of view. The vivid purple draws the eye to what otherwise would have been just a white shirt.

Bernie Fuchs

Bernie Fuchs

Bernie Fuchs

Bernie Fuchs

Bernie Fuchs uses a very selective colour palette for his illustrations that consist of more muted, harmonious colours. This restriction of colour creates an obvious feeling to each painting, with the example on the right conveying a more welcoming and warm atmosphere with its red tones compared to the cold and more hostile atmosphere on the left containing blue tones. Despite this, due to the deep nature of his main tones and lack of any major shading, each painting has an eerie sense to them similar to that of an overcast day. 
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​Fuchs has a unique choice of framing when it comes to his compositions, most often choosing to pan away from the main focus of the scene to include more of its surroundings. This gives the viewer a better understanding to the environment of the illustration and giving a further insight to the characters depicted.

Practical Task

My inspired illustration

For my illustration inspired by the artists I researched, I used Peak's use of vivid colour for the pink of the floor as well as Fuchs' harmonious colour palette, restricting myself to mainly a mix of purple and blue tones.

When it comes to composition, both illustrators tend to show more of the surroundings opposed to the figure situated within. I did this by having varied objects in the foreground which are more telling to the person's personality than the portrait of the figure itself.

I found this style of working very interesting and helpful for coming up with an interesting composition. It forces you to think outside of the norm and get creative, even featuring more of a story within the piece.