The Case of the Flapless Flapper
Posted by trev | Filed under Illustration, Preliminary Drawings, SketchbookA few months ago, I had to do a small illustration for this newsletter that I was laying out at work. The story was a “Roaring 20s” themed shindig. The client wanted a “Great Gatsby” type illustration. They pointed me to John Held Jr’s famous Life cover which popularized the flapper look.
I was excited about the illustration for a number of reasons. I have always been fond of the Jazz Age, and that fondness had been reignited from pouring over all of the great art from Jazz age artists posted on Cartoon Retro. Plus, I don’t really get to illustrate a lot of things at work for one reason or another so I am always excited to get the chance to work on something.
Enthusiasm aside, the illustration offered some challenges. First, it needed to be turned around rather quickly. It wasn’t an unreasonable amount of time, but it left little time for exploring numerous ways to attack the concept. Second was the dimensions. The space left for the illustration was a bit odd — very tall and narrow.
At first I thought the dimensions would work in my favor. I thought the tall and narrow composition could echo the art deco look of the period. However, as I started working on some rough sketches, I realized that the composition was going to be tricky.
Taking my cue from the Held drawing, I wanted to have a man (a Great Gatsby type) and a woman (flapper) in the midsts of a feverish Charleston. Like the Held drawing, I wanted the figures to have a lot of energy with their limbs contorted in some cartoony fashion. Here’s a rough sketch of a early exploration pose for my flapper.
The problem was how to fit the two in such a narrow composition. I played around with some combinations, and finally found a rough that had the feel I was looking for.
Unfortunately, the composition in the rough wasn’t the same dimensions as the ones I needed. The completed illustration had to be much narrower. None of my roughs were working, so I decided to do roughs of each figure separately and then compose them, the way I wanted when I got into Illustrator. Here’s a rough of my Gatsby stand-in.
The women proved tougher. I couldn’t figure out how to crop her so she still suggested a lot of feverish motion — and at the same time still leave some room for Gatsby. With time running out, I had to finish it up as best as I could.
I think it turned out okay, and the client was very happy with it. Looking back, I wish I had some more time to work it a little more. I think my flapper is still a litttle more stiff than I would’ve liked. When you are on the clock you don’t have the luxury of endlessly working something. You just do the best you can and use what you learn from the next drawing.