Step 1, Tutorial - Scratchboard illustration of Gutengerg by Michael Halbert

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TIP:
When shooting reference photos of a model, try to get a costume that is right for the subject and use interesting lighting. For this project, I wasn't able to do either-time was running out.

FACT:
During Gutenberg's time, few people could read. The people how could read were government leaders, churchmen, professors and students. Ordinary people didn't have access to books, which were hand lettered by monks, scholars and scribes. As printed books became available to the masse, ordinary people began to read. Yes, that was the beginning of the information age!

The illustration that I will be taking you through, is just one of several illustrations that will be used as a title page for an annual report . The theme of the drawings is "inventors", and each illustration will be printed full page, with a brown ink. Usually the original art is done larger than the printed size, but the art director for this project (Ria Sharon at Group C Design) wanted the art done smaller so it could be enlarged to about twice size. She wanted the art enlarged so the printed piece would be bold, and the character of the lines could be seen when printed with a brown ink.

Johann Gutenberg, the inventor of movable type and the father of modern day printing, is the subject for this step-by-step. Gutenberg lived between about 1394 and 1468, and since photography hadn't been invented yet and he never posed for a painting, we really don't have a record of what he looked like, so I'll invent a character for him.

The first step for this project is to find a model that can be imagined to look like Gutenberg. I know a guy close to my studio that I cast for the role of Gutenberg. I wanted to get the upper part of a costume from that time period, but the costume rental business where I usually rent costumes was closed two days in a row and time was running out, so I forget the costume. The reference photos were taken with normal room lighting and a flash, using a digital camera.

(10Mg)