Tuesday, July 03, 2012

The Linear Art of Tom McNeely

Canadian illustrator Tom McNeely is a gifted painter. His preferred medium is watercolour.

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During the more than fifty years of his career however, Tom often worked in a variety of line art styles, from the very sketchy reportage style shown in yesterday's post, to a variety of loose, textural, or technical styles.

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Sometimes Tom would experiment with linear treatments that might better reflected the mood of the article he was illustrating...

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Sometimes he experimented simply to satisfy his naturally restless creativity.

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What has always impressed me most is Tom's ability to marry a lively energetic quality to the accuracy of excellent draftsmanship. Here are a few more examples with an appropriately "summer fun" theme.

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If you're interested in seeing more of Tom's artwork and reading about his career, just click on the links below:

Tom McNeely, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

5 comments:

  1. "Marriage Makes Three" is sorta Fuchs-ian. Maybe every colorful hair-do makes me think that?

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  2. Another unsung pro.Seems like it was a golden age for great draughtsmanship back then.

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  3. My goodness, that Marilyn portrait is luminous! I second what Remo said above - definitely unsung... until now.

    -A

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