Here is the finished
illustration as reproduced in the magazine after foliage in foreground
was painted.
The reproduction
above shows the final illustration as it was delivered to Mr.
Gordon and accepted for publication, with only a few minor revisions.
Getting out my old machete and chopping down some of the foliage
took care of most of them!
Norman Saunders,
who wrote the foregoing article on how he goes about the business
of creating an illustration for a magazine, has had a long and
successful career as artist and illustrator. As an art student
in the middle twenties, his work came under this writer's supervision,
who also had the pleasure of arranging for his first interview
with the Fawcett Publications after his graduation. He came to
Minneapolis from Roseau, Minnesota, to take his first art position
as illustrator for the Fawcett Modern Mechanics magazine.
In the middle thirties, Fawcett Publications moved to New York
and Saunders also went to New York to open a free-lance studio,
doing cover designs for magazines and, later, for little pocket
books.
The second World
War interrupted his art activities briefly, when he was sent
to China with the army engineers, supervising coolies who were
laying gasoline pipe lines for the army. Saunders had his water
colors with him and made hundreds of sketches of the people and
the country. He returned with a bulging portfolio of beautiful
water colors made in China and Tibet. Some of these were used
with magazine articles and we reproduced some in this magazine.
We also reproduced some of these with his article, "Painting
on the Spot," in our textbook on Landscape Painting in Water
Color, which is part of our painting course.
Saunders exhibits
his paintings regularly in New York and keeps busy doing illustrations
and cover designs for magazines. Over thirty years have passed
since he took that first art position in Minneapolis and his
star has risen steadily ever since. There is a good reason for
this. He worked very hard at being an artist when he was an art
student and he is still working very hard at it today.
Editor, Walter J. Wilwerding, October, 1959