Bill Peckmann &Illustration &Rowland B. Wilson 16 Feb 2012 06:41 am
Rowland B. Wilson TVGuide originals – 1
- Bill Peckmann had sent me a number of rough sketches by Rowland Wilson which I posted last week. These were for TV Guide spot illustrations that Rowland had done back in the 70s and 80s. The only problem was that we didn’t have many of the finished spots to show against the ruffs.
Well, this week I got an email from Suzanne Wilson, the wife of the late Mr. Wilson. She offered to send copies of the original watercolor artwork to show what the finals look like. Wow! So . . . here we have a large number of scanned originals from Rowland, thanks to Suzanne’s addition.
Since there are 26 of them, and I’ve decided to post the ruffs again alongside the originals, the piece got a bit long, and I’ve decided to break it into two. Today I’ll post all the sports pieces, and tomorrow the others. Not all of the ruffs have originals that match, and not all of the finals have ruffs to show off. Believe me, it’s a great post, and I think you’ll like it.
Because these are from the originals, I suggest you take some time and blow them up. You can see a lot of the artist’s hand in these, certainly more than you can in a printed copy.
1
2
3
4
5
6a
6
7a
7
8a
8
9
10
11
12
13
14a
14
I had planned to post more of these great illustrations tomorrow.
Because of the death of John Severin, I’ve decided to hold off part 2 of this TV Guide post until next Thursday and instead post something in memory of Mr. Severin tomorrow.
Many thanks to Suzanne Wilson and Bill Peckmann for their generous contribution.
on 16 Feb 2012 at 10:47 am 1.Tom said …
Beautiful! How big are the illustrations,Michael?
How did you scan them? What kind of scanner do you have?
on 16 Feb 2012 at 12:58 pm 2.Bill said …
Tom, Rowland’s illo’s for TVGuide usually ran about 8 x 10 inches.
on 16 Feb 2012 at 4:48 pm 3.Suzanne Wilson said …
Thank you for posting these, Michael. There’s something thrilling about seeing the illustrations just for themselves and not reduced, surrounded by type (and ads!) and printed on thin paper as they were in the magazines.
It’s great to look at the ruffs compared to the finished art. We may have missed that experience completely if not for Bill Peckmann having the foresight to intercept the tracing paper drawings before they hit the wastebasket. Rowland was diligent about destroying the preliminaries (he didn’t like them “cluttering up†his desk!) so they are very rare.
Jerry Alten was the Art Director at TV Guide for many years and had an intuitive feeling for matching the articles with the artists.
To answer the scanner question–on the color images the scanner is an Epson Expression 10000 XL, at 200 dpi.
Thanks again, Michael and Bill.
on 17 Feb 2012 at 8:52 am 4.Joakim Gunnarsson said …
Wow, wow, wow!
Thanks, Suzanne and Bill!
on 17 Feb 2012 at 5:45 pm 5.The Gee said …
Thanks.
No. 6/6a:
the sketch alone is great to see but the color choices in the finished illustration provides so much more context to it. That’s amazing to me. That choice of the heart-shaped background colors is pretty clever with the properly dominant cool colors and that slice of warmth in the doorway.
And, to make the vivid colors for her make her look even more energetic. It is a really nice piece to see. So, thanks again.
on 24 Feb 2012 at 2:12 am 6.Suzanne Wilson said …
Here are the titles I was able to find:
1–Running into the Charge of the Fright Brigade
2–Those NCAA Gumshoes Ride Again
3–OK, Fans, Let’s Hear It for Brooke Shields’ Doctor’s Dog
4—Spying At the Super Bowl: the Inside Story
5—(About curfew before the Super Bowl)
7—In Praise of Pasta (Have also seen it as Pasta Power)
8–Don’t Miss This Pitch
9–It Took a Black Cat—and Rabbits’ Feet—To Stop Eddie Lopat’s Winning Streak
10, 11,12–All You Need Is Speed, Power-–and a Herzog
13–Garden-Variety Millionaires Need Not Apply
14–A Few Bars of “Tessieâ€â€”and the Pirates Were Sunk