The Cartoonists Exchange of Pleasant Hill, OH was a busy cartoon correspondence course operation for a number of decades. This is the Lesson Correction Portfolio and is copyright 1946 by Cartoonists' [sic] Exchange.
Cartoonist David Rand collected students' submissions, and then, sold the drawings back to them. You just have to shake your head and admire Mr. Rand's monetization of the medium!
So many of these corrections are serious drawing comments:
- indicate grain in wood,
- upper torso should be longer,
- nose on pretty girl's face should be less noticeable,
- hand detail should be more carefully worked out,
- glorify the girl's legs.
Okay, maybe not that last one.
Lots of good, basic advice here, 66+ years on. I love pages like this, with lots of pen noodling. Even if you've gone all Wacom, then this still applies!
Evidently, a student was given a lesson. I don't own the lesson books, so I'm in the dark here. Maybe something like the old lady commits violence against the old man. Something like that. Or, guy finds jar of mystery spirits in the cellar; hilarity commences.
There is some good advice here, but I find that instead of looking at the folds in the clothes, I am wincing at the story telling.
Below is a photo of Mr. Rand, realizing his ambition of drawing comic strip ads for some consumer item called "Peppets."
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4 comments:
How much did Rand charge you to post this?
Also, "glorify the girl's legs" is my mantra for today. Every woman I draw is gonna have great gams!
The guy who did the second fat-lady-running-after-husband and the second guy-finding-mystery-jug is pretty damn good. Better than what I can see of Rand's work, anyway. I wonder if he ever made it?
Andrei, that's a good question! I admire his ability to monetize the cartoon instruction business. Selling people back their own drawings! Yipe!
I took the course. There was a flat fee for the course...I believe it was advertised by having people copy a drawing on a matchbook cover. Anyway, you submitted your execution of each lesson by mail and he sent you back a corrected version, usually in red ink over your original drawing. It wasn't sold back to you; it was all included as part of the course.
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