An Artistic Process

Once upon a time I received an assignment for my History of Illustration class. It went something like this:

1. Pick an illustrator from art history. The illustrator must be dead.
2. Create an image using the same technique as your chosen illustrator and in the same style.
3. This will be a semester long project. Have fun!

To begin I made an extensive list of illustrators I admired. I even asked Facebook what illustrators it liked. I got many answers varying from William Blake to Frank Frazetta. After compiling a list of 20-odd illustrators, doing a detailed study of their artwork, and contemplating what I would have to go through to copy their technique I finally landed on the Swedish illustrator John Bauer. I had discovered Mr. Bauer over the summer and had become obsessed with him. Looking back at my scrupulous study of illustrators, I don't know why I made such a big ordeal; I knew I would pick John Bauer from the get go.

Having successfully picked my illustrator I sketched up 25 thumbnails of ideas for my final image. As with all drawings created for this project these thumbnails were part of the project and had to be turned in...I forget when, sometime at the end of September or something.

These 25 thumbnails were then narrowed down to 7 images which were then expanded upon. They were turned in at some point in October.

I loved all of these images a lot and I had a hard time deciding on which one I would pick for my final. So I asked Facebook which one it thought I should do. It decided I should do the sky boat one. I made a final mock-up image which was turned in at the beginning of November.

I then proceeded to freak out that my image wasn't true to the style of John Bauer and put off working on it until a few days before it was due. This is of course the best way to deal with stress.

The result of a semester of planning, sketching, and stressing:

The final was a two minute presentation talking about the artist's process. It was very anti-climatic.

Directly after class I learned that this final project actually doesn't count for much grade-wise and that our teacher was more interested in us learning about the artists process than about the quality of our final work.

This was my inspiration for my image.


John Bauer drowned along with his wife and their young son while taking a ferry to Stockholm. He was only 36. Although his career was cut short he managed to create some absolutely stunning illustrations. I chose to do a viking ship in the sky because although Mr. Bauer died so tragically he is still an inspiration...still lighting stars in the sky you could say.