Peter Smyth

Tomi Um appreciation post
(images from https://tomi.work/)

focus spots

This one (can't read the signature—making a note to locate the artist later) strikes me as stylistically unusual for a spot illustration, but maybe that's only to my modern eye
/end

1st image: nice graphite illustration with ink used only on the central figure. 2nd: details on this butler figure are comically small (see the tiny glass) but thus hard to read. 3rd: Pekinese spots! 4th: most header illustrations are reused from 1st issue, but this one's new

These illustrations by Ralph Barton (left) and W. Heath Robison (right) have lots of weird artifacts. The New Yorker clearly prioritized the clarity of text in the scans for their archive, leaving illustrations with subtle value gradations to suffer

We have TWO Covarrubias illustrations this time, both great

New Yorker Illustrations #2 (Feb. 28, 1925)

Cover by Al Frueh is super simple, almost to the point of sacrificing some legibility. Looking ahead at covers for the rest of the year, this is the only one with this composition, objects centered on a totally empty field

some of my own spots from the last week

Bonus #2: I found an archived Time article that refers to Rea Irvin as a "comic stripper". The artists who draw comics are often uncertain whether to call themselves cartoonists, graphic novelists, etc. The obvious solution is that they call themselves "strippers"

Bonus: I was delighted to learn that Rea Irvin, the cover artist, drew a comic strip called The Smythes (image from https://www.printmag.com/design-resources/everybody_loves_rea_irvin/)

One last spot. It's too bad the spots usually aren't signed

Don't love these illustrations—left is signed "Kelley" and right "Herman"(I think?)—but I do like the device of pairing thin contour lines with heavy spots of black

Some header illustrations. I like the short hatching, like under the clouds in the "Profiles" header—looks like the way Bushmiller draws Nancy's hair

This illustration by Ralph Barton (left) is interesting. Not sure if it's actually that dark or if the New Yorker archive's scan just isn't that good. Reminds me of some of Feininger's illustrations in German magazines, like this one (right) from the Lustige Blatter, 1904 or 1905

To start, we've got the classic cover by Rea Irvin and an excellent portrait illustration by Miguel Covarrubias

I'm gonna do a thing where I go through the New Yorker archives and tweet about the illustrations, starting with the first issue, published Feb. 21, 1925

(I've wanted to do something with New Yorker illustrations, and this feels more appropriate than a formal research project)