We were going to go flying again with the Franks (Moss & Borth), but as i was pulling pages i realized the we still had a major bit of Borth dangling. Quite a while back, i dropped this page into the mix of a scattered post -
Note that the Sketch-It is numbered - #6, implying a series.
In another post focused on covers from Treasure Chest Of Fun & Fact, i teased this cover -
Draw-Along With Frank Borth - #7, it says!
Back in 1963, Borth serialized how-to-draw lessons, and they were quite good. He touched on things that i usually don't see - though, to be honest, i haven't read a lot of How To Draw books. I already had my own approach by the time i found them. So, i could be making ign'ant statements here.
But, for example, in the first lesson he talks about the usual bit of how everything is made from squares, circles, and triangles. But then, before going further, he has the students actually practice drawing the geometric shapes, getting comfortable with them before moving forward. Quite practical and solid foundation work. And you even get a sense of what Scott McCloud would elaborate upon decades later regarding the nature and history of art & storytelling. (Did McCloud refer to sign language as "drawing on air"?)
And, of course, it's Frank Borth! It's not hard to figure out i'm fond of his artwork - we're passing a score of posts featuring it. TCoF&F published 20 issues each school year. The first half of volume 18 featured another serial from the Capt. Frank T. Moss & Frank Borth team (One of their Ferdy tales. We'll get to him), and when that completed Draw-Along filled the space for the next 10 issues.
You know where this is going, right? Of course we're going to run them all. They're generally five pages each, so we'll do two at a time. That way i won't have to fight too hard with Blogger's defective image upload. (I get tired of waiting for over half an hour for them to not frell up the transfer and leave it hanging.)
Observe the footnote at the bottom of panel one below. 16 years at TCoF&F at that point. And most of those years, he and Capt. Moss did a serialized tale together. We've seen The Enchanted Flivver series, but there was also The Champ (no - get that picture out of your head) and Ferdy, both of whom have pages pulled to run here eventually, and many others including one-shot stories. Since Treasure Chest of Fun & Fact wasn't available to the general public, and i don't believe any of these have been collected and reprinted as they should be, we'll be coming back repeatedly for more. (Along with a bunch of other hidden treasures from artists like Joe Sinnott and Reed Crandall, for whom words like Great and Legendary are often used.)
For now, let's get to that "panel one below" -
For the second lesson, the inside front & back covers were utilized to provide an artist's aid -
I liked the old styrofoam head i used (an cheap wig stand) cosiderably better since this thing is really only good for front & side views. But i like the concept. And the X shape does make a Funny Face of sorts.
On to the lesson!
You're going to have to practice fast since the lessons continue tomorrow (i hope).
Better get to it!
Note that the Sketch-It is numbered - #6, implying a series.
In another post focused on covers from Treasure Chest Of Fun & Fact, i teased this cover -
Draw-Along With Frank Borth - #7, it says!
Back in 1963, Borth serialized how-to-draw lessons, and they were quite good. He touched on things that i usually don't see - though, to be honest, i haven't read a lot of How To Draw books. I already had my own approach by the time i found them. So, i could be making ign'ant statements here.
But, for example, in the first lesson he talks about the usual bit of how everything is made from squares, circles, and triangles. But then, before going further, he has the students actually practice drawing the geometric shapes, getting comfortable with them before moving forward. Quite practical and solid foundation work. And you even get a sense of what Scott McCloud would elaborate upon decades later regarding the nature and history of art & storytelling. (Did McCloud refer to sign language as "drawing on air"?)
And, of course, it's Frank Borth! It's not hard to figure out i'm fond of his artwork - we're passing a score of posts featuring it. TCoF&F published 20 issues each school year. The first half of volume 18 featured another serial from the Capt. Frank T. Moss & Frank Borth team (One of their Ferdy tales. We'll get to him), and when that completed Draw-Along filled the space for the next 10 issues.
You know where this is going, right? Of course we're going to run them all. They're generally five pages each, so we'll do two at a time. That way i won't have to fight too hard with Blogger's defective image upload. (I get tired of waiting for over half an hour for them to not frell up the transfer and leave it hanging.)
Observe the footnote at the bottom of panel one below. 16 years at TCoF&F at that point. And most of those years, he and Capt. Moss did a serialized tale together. We've seen The Enchanted Flivver series, but there was also The Champ (no - get that picture out of your head) and Ferdy, both of whom have pages pulled to run here eventually, and many others including one-shot stories. Since Treasure Chest of Fun & Fact wasn't available to the general public, and i don't believe any of these have been collected and reprinted as they should be, we'll be coming back repeatedly for more. (Along with a bunch of other hidden treasures from artists like Joe Sinnott and Reed Crandall, for whom words like Great and Legendary are often used.)
For now, let's get to that "panel one below" -
For the second lesson, the inside front & back covers were utilized to provide an artist's aid -
I liked the old styrofoam head i used (an cheap wig stand) cosiderably better since this thing is really only good for front & side views. But i like the concept. And the X shape does make a Funny Face of sorts.
On to the lesson!
You're going to have to practice fast since the lessons continue tomorrow (i hope).
Better get to it!
page art by Frank Borth from Treasure Chest Of Fun & Fact V18 #s 11 & 12 (1963)
