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Blog » Wall Street Journal
Sprouls Method - The Hedcut
By Kevin Sprouls
All right, everyone, gather ’round! I’m going to show you all how I create those iconic portraits, in the style I introduced to the Wall Street Journal and still seen around the world today.
The required tools include:
A soft pencil (I actually use a lead-holder, like the old draftsmen used back in the day, HB grade lead.)
Ink for the technical fountain pens (You can use a dip pen like this, but I wouldn’t recommend it— hard to control, and messy!)
And you’ll need an eraser. (The one pictured is known as a “Pink Pearl”— I prefer the kneaded rubber type, which is superior.) A fine, high-quality paintbrush and some white designer’s gouache will take care of any “adjustments” which might be necessary.
Many of my clients send photos to work with that, I must say, can be challenging. The following illustrates one case of a recently produced portrait. Step one: The Client sends me the photograph. It looks like this:
Not great, but it has just enough detail to work with. Step two: get the image into photoshop, convert to grey, size image to my liking, and crop.
Step three: I print out the greyscale image and transfer the photo’s information onto illustration board by tracing on the photo. The resulting contour drawing is like a map for me to follow as I “ink” the finished product.
Everything is done by hand, one mark of the pen at a time. Once the portrait is inked, the pencil lines get erased, and I’m ready to “touch up” any visual issues with the paint brush. And the final result:
This is a large image, to show detail. Below is the portrait as it might be used on the web or in print.
I hope you enjoyed my tutorial. I understand that the folks over at the WSJ use a slightly different process to get their hedcuts into the paper, but the hallmark style remains the same: Picturing Business.
All right, everyone, gather ’round! I’m going to show you all how I create those iconic portraits, in the style I introduced to the Wall Street Journal and still seen around the world today.
The required tools include:
A soft pencil (I actually use a lead-holder, like the old draftsmen used back in the day, HB grade lead.)
Ink for the technical fountain pens (You can use a dip pen like this, but I wouldn’t recommend it— hard to control, and messy!)
And you’ll need an eraser. (The one pictured is known as a “Pink Pearl”— I prefer the kneaded rubber type, which is superior.) A fine, high-quality paintbrush and some white designer’s gouache will take care of any “adjustments” which might be necessary.
Many of my clients send photos to work with that, I must say, can be challenging. The following illustrates one case of a recently produced portrait. Step one: The Client sends me the photograph. It looks like this:
Not great, but it has just enough detail to work with. Step two: get the image into photoshop, convert to grey, size image to my liking, and crop.
Step three: I print out the greyscale image and transfer the photo’s information onto illustration board by tracing on the photo. The resulting contour drawing is like a map for me to follow as I “ink” the finished product.
Everything is done by hand, one mark of the pen at a time. Once the portrait is inked, the pencil lines get erased, and I’m ready to “touch up” any visual issues with the paint brush. And the final result:
This is a large image, to show detail. Below is the portrait as it might be used on the web or in print.
I hope you enjoyed my tutorial. I understand that the folks over at the WSJ use a slightly different process to get their hedcuts into the paper, but the hallmark style remains the same: Picturing Business.
Richard Borge Illustrates 'The First Virus'
Richard Borge's illustrations were featured in Michael Totty's Wall Street Journal article, "The First Virus", earlier this week. Totty commemorates the 40th anniversary of the first known computer virus with a chronology of the worst viruses over the years. Click HERE to read the full article.
Harry Potter and The Wall Street Journal Hedcuts
With the eighth and final Harry Potter film bringing the multi-billion dollar film franchise to a conclusion (at least until the spin-offs arrive, Harry Potter Jr as a Saturday morning cartoon? You know some Hollywood studio exec is planning the pitch right now), we take a look back at the character's growth through the years, Wall Street Journal style. Workbook illustrator Randy Glass has chronicled Harry's growth from the beginning of the series with hedcuts from the first 6 films. Harry loses the ties, but keeps his trademark glasses, as the portraits showcase his maturation (as well as the films themselves) from an innocent kid to a conflicted but determined young man.
Below are Harry/Daniel's hedcuts from films 1-6 (in chronological order).
Randy Glass' Workbook Portfolio
Below are Harry/Daniel's hedcuts from films 1-6 (in chronological order).
Randy Glass' Workbook Portfolio
This Just In... Val Bochkov for the Wall Street Journal
Today's Wall Street Journal features Val Bochkov's above illustration for the article about Cloud technology.
See more of Val's work here
This Just In... Richard Borge
Richard Borge is on the cover of Wall Street Journal, The Journal Report section today: "How ETFs Have Reshaped Investing".
Richard Borge's Workbook Portfolio
Richard Borge's "Inventions" for Wall Street Journal
Posted by Workbook on 10/14/2010 — Filed under: Illustration
Richard Borge recently created two illustrations for the Wall Street Journal on the topic of the history and the future of inventions.
http://richardborge.com/ and http://www.workbook.com/portfolios/borge
http://richardborge.com/ and http://www.workbook.com/portfolios/borge
Illustrator Kevin Sprouls: Joint Ventures
Posted by Workbook on 08/06/2010 — Filed under: Illustration
If you've ever read the Wall Street Journal, then you'll find the style of these images pretty familiar. Kevin Sprouls, the man responsible for many of the illustrated portraits seen on a daily basis in the paper, features some of his multiple character hedcuts and the often difficult process of fitting everyone into them. Additional work from Kevin is at http://www.sprouls.com/blog/ and http://www.workbook.com/portfolios/sprouls
These portrait drawings, known in the parlance of the Wall Street Journal as hedcuts, were produced while I was heading up the in-house illustration team at the paper during the 1980′s. Normally, we generated single portraits; however, there were those instances when we needed to depict more than one person within our space on the page. For this application, we were granted a full column, rather than the usual half-column window.
Jim Wright and Tip O’Neill are shown below. Can you identify the rest??
Next, name the astronauts (bonus points!)
…from a human interest piece. It was always a challenge to “put together” these multiple portraits. We had to jam folks as closely together as was feasible, squeezing them into the two-and-a-half inch column width. My approach was usually to blend them together with a tonal fade. Can you find my signature?
These guys are described merely as "detectives". Check out the fade technique.
… a business couple with great hair.
Eighties icon the Thompson Twins. More great Hair! My kids loved this band when they were tots.
Hope you’ve enjoyed this brief tour through my portrait collection— more to come…
These portrait drawings, known in the parlance of the Wall Street Journal as hedcuts, were produced while I was heading up the in-house illustration team at the paper during the 1980′s. Normally, we generated single portraits; however, there were those instances when we needed to depict more than one person within our space on the page. For this application, we were granted a full column, rather than the usual half-column window.
Jim Wright and Tip O’Neill are shown below. Can you identify the rest??
Next, name the astronauts (bonus points!)
…from a human interest piece. It was always a challenge to “put together” these multiple portraits. We had to jam folks as closely together as was feasible, squeezing them into the two-and-a-half inch column width. My approach was usually to blend them together with a tonal fade. Can you find my signature?
These guys are described merely as "detectives". Check out the fade technique.
… a business couple with great hair.
Eighties icon the Thompson Twins. More great Hair! My kids loved this band when they were tots.
Hope you’ve enjoyed this brief tour through my portrait collection— more to come…
