Pen & Ink Stipple Portraits for The Los Angeles Times

View Original

My Very First Hedcut for The Wall Street Journal

The iconic hedcut portraits for The Wall Street Journal were created by fellow illustrator Kevin Sprouls back in the late '70s. I always thought they were really neat - very much like the etching style used on currency, but incorporating dot patterns which I appreciated as a stipple artist. Fifteen years after their introduction I had some back-and-forth with folks at the Journal about the possibility of creating some hedcuts for them on a freelance basis, but my being on the west coast was seen as a real challenge. This is a daily newspaper, after all...and few of us were using computers, let alone scanners back then. Their deadlines seemed impossible...FedEx was an option, but a hassle. And - we still hadn't determined that I could do the drawings fast enough or that they'd even like my own efforts to replicate their distinguished look. We decided that a "test" hedcut was in order, and I was allowed to choose anyone I wanted to draw for this first attempt. For some reason (and I honestly can't remember why) - I chose Curly from The Three Stooges. The Journal's senior art director, Joe Dizney, liked the drawing and I did create a few hedcuts for them sporadically over the next few years. But in 1999 - with my studio's welcome addition of a brand new Epson scanner - I was able to become a regular contributor. So I guess I have Curly Howard (among others) to thank for getting this fun gig started. And - this reverie was undoubtedly triggered by the brand new #ThreeStooges movie opening this weekend.