Learning Drawing From a Master

James McMullan is one of America’s legendary living illustrators. He is 84 years old and he still works 8 hours a day, working out of his New York City studio. He has worked for every major magazine in the world. As a student of his back in 1995 I learned much about how to rightly perceive a subject through careful observation.

James  McMullan  has  created  images  for  magazine  stories,  books  for  adults and  children,  record  covers,  US  stamps,  murals  and  animated  films  but  he is most  well  known  for  the  over  eighty  posters  he  has  done  for  Lincoln Center Theater.  Among  the  most  recognized  of  these  posters  are  Anything  Goes, Carousel,  South  Pacific,  The  King  and  I  and  My  Fair  Lady.  To  celebrate  this achievement  Lincoln  Center  Theater  has  recently  mounted  a  permanent exhibit  of  his  original  poster  art  in  the  lobby  of  the  Mitzi  Newhouse Theater.  

Another  highlight  of  his  career  is  illustrating  the  popular  series  of  vehicle books,  (including  I  Stink!,  a  monologue  by  a  garbage  truck),  written  by  his wife,  the  author,  Kate  McMullan,  which  Amazon  has  transformed  into  the animated  series,  The  Stinky  and  Dirty  Show.  A  standout  in  James  McMullan’s  work  for  magazines  is  the  group  of journalistic  illustrations  of  a  Brooklyn  Disco  that  he  painted  for  New  York Magazine that  became  the  visual  inspiration  for  the  movie  Saturday  Night Fever.  

In 2010 he produced a series of how-to-draw lessons for the New York Times. I have taken these lessons and combined them into just a few lessons so we can learn to draw from a master. I am in contact with James McMullen and he is very happy that we are applying his lessons in this manner.​

McMullen first teaches a fundamental shape that is found throughout nature and the human figure, that of ellipses. He shows us a fundamental lesson using a clay vase as the subject because of its natural organic shapes that include ellipses, ovals and straight lines. The vase he is drawing is found here:

Curved hatch lines start our shading with cross hatch lines to start going darker as shown below.

#3

McMullan writes, Now we’ll move on to shading the pot that we previously described in simple outline, using curving lines that are like segments of the ellipse.

These are what I think of as “cat stroking” lines — curves that start gently, reach a crescendo of pressure and then fade out at the end. They enclose lines sensuously and are enormously useful in describing all kinds of bulging, rolling, bumpy subjects. In using these curved lines to shade the pot, we will not only describe the shadow but, because the lines curve around the pot, we will be accentuating its actual form. In my example of cross-hatching I show that, in order to avoid a “clotted” effect, the lines are made at different angles. I have drawn my examples in pen and ink to make the images clearer, but you might want to draw in a 2B or 4B pencil.

#4

Now that the pot has been illuminated with a strong directional light, we can study how that light falls on the object, the angles that the shadows make and how to use lines to shade the drawing. Either using the outline drawing you did last week or, drawing the pot again, follow along with these steps to delineate the shadows on the pot.

In the first stage of the drawing, I show that the light is coming from the right and slightly in front of the pot. This means that the basic pattern of shadow on the outside of the pot falls on the left, but the shadow on the inside of the pot is on the right.

In the last stage of the drawing, I use very pale lines in the light part of the pot on the right to dramatize the very lightest part of the pot on the “shoulder.” In other words, I am saving paper white for the one dramatically lit part of the pot. I finish the drawing by shading the shadow on the ground behind the pot, accentuating the flatness of the ground by using straighter parallel lines.

These lessons are due by Friday Sept.19

Lesson One- Draw two different objects that overlap one-another (meaning one object will be in front of the other to a certain measure). Choose objects that have ellipses as shown in James McMullens drawing samples. Focus on the way light wraps around each object as if it were hugging the object gently. Focus on the specific darkness of the crosshatching as the back side of your objects get darker. Submit this drawing by Thursday night at midnight using your cell phone camera. Send the image to ihs.db@yahoo.com . Try to save the photo as a .jpg file. Most cell phones do this naturally. We will continue with the lessons by James McMullen in the coming weeks. Keep in mind, these are lessons taught by one of the most respected illustrators in the country. I have been drawing for over 50 years and I am learning new dynamics of drawing from him.

Lesson Two- As an assessment complete the following form to show evidence to me that you read the information on James McMullen.