Comments on: Mark Summers http://www.linesandcolors.com/2007/01/04/mark-summers/ Sat, 11 Feb 2012 06:40:52 -0500 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: mark summers http://www.linesandcolors.com/2007/01/04/mark-summers/comment-page-1/#comment-919945 mark summers Tue, 07 Dec 2010 06:17:58 +0000 http://www.linesandcolors.com/2007/01/04/mark-summers/#comment-919945 Hi Diane, I took almost 9 years for me to track down images of each president in the same profile, with matching lighting. For some, like Washington and Jefferson, I worked from busts and for others I would go frame by frame through videos and photograph from a T.V. screen. There are about 8 that I couldn't find an image for and so I would photograph people I knew who had a vague physical resemblance and, working from other photos, transform them into a president. Feel free to use my images as a reference. They are just drawings, not holy relics. Mark Hi Diane,

I took almost 9 years for me to track down images of each president in the same profile, with matching lighting. For some, like Washington and Jefferson, I worked from busts and for others I would go frame by frame through videos and photograph from a T.V. screen. There are about 8 that I couldn’t find an image for and so I would photograph people I knew who had a vague physical resemblance and, working from other photos, transform them into a president.
Feel free to use my images as a reference. They are just drawings, not holy relics.

Mark

]]> By: Diane Gregg http://www.linesandcolors.com/2007/01/04/mark-summers/comment-page-1/#comment-909634 Diane Gregg Wed, 20 Oct 2010 00:59:37 +0000 http://www.linesandcolors.com/2007/01/04/mark-summers/#comment-909634 Hi Mark, Just picked up a copy of the new book, "Presidential Profiles," that you illustrated. Very, very impressive. Beautiful work! I work in graphite pencil, drawing presidential portraits and wonder where on earth you found profiles for each president? Amazing! I've been wanting to include a light sketch of each of their profiles, but have found so few of them. I noted that your work is copyrighted and I definitely respect that. Just wondered if you ever give permission for someone like me to use your work as a reference photo? Thanks so much for your time and consideration. Best wishes. Diane Hi Mark,
Just picked up a copy of the new book, “Presidential Profiles,” that you illustrated. Very, very impressive. Beautiful work! I work in graphite pencil, drawing presidential portraits and wonder where on earth you found profiles for each president? Amazing! I’ve been wanting to include a light sketch of each of their profiles, but have found so few of them. I noted that your work is copyrighted and I definitely respect that. Just wondered if you ever give permission for someone like me to use your work as a reference photo? Thanks so much for your time and consideration. Best wishes. Diane

]]> By: mark summers http://www.linesandcolors.com/2007/01/04/mark-summers/comment-page-1/#comment-895672 mark summers Fri, 20 Aug 2010 05:57:59 +0000 http://www.linesandcolors.com/2007/01/04/mark-summers/#comment-895672 Thanks for all the nice comments Derek. You can see lots of my newer work at Behance, a site for illustrators, photographers and designers. Maybe someday in the near future someone will decide to put all my lines into a book. One thing the Behance site has (as does the Richard Solomon site, under "case study") is a step by step walk through of my process. I worked on Essdee for about 25 years (pre-inked) but, for various reasons the quality disappeared. I had tried Ampersand's "Clayboard" about 10 years ago but didn't like it. I picked up a piece 3 years ago and found the quality to be greatly improved and have now switched over completely. I do about half my work on the white and half on the pre-inked. I use a number of tools for various effects but my primary tool is a simple #11 Xacto knife. I use the unsharpened side to make my fine lines and the sharpened side to retrace and refine the wider lines. Hope this clears up most of your questions. If you want to discuss scratchboard further, contact Solomon and we can hook up via e-mail or phone. Thanks for the interest. Thanks for all the nice comments Derek.
You can see lots of my newer work at Behance, a site for illustrators, photographers and designers.
Maybe someday in the near future someone will decide to put all my lines into a book.
One thing the Behance site has (as does the Richard Solomon site, under “case study”) is a step by step walk through of my process. I worked on Essdee for about 25 years (pre-inked) but, for various reasons the quality disappeared. I had tried Ampersand’s “Clayboard” about 10 years ago but didn’t like it. I picked up a piece 3 years ago and found the quality to be greatly improved and have now switched over completely. I do about half my work on the white and half on the pre-inked.
I use a number of tools for various effects but my primary tool is a simple #11 Xacto knife. I use the unsharpened side to make my fine lines and the sharpened side to retrace and refine the wider lines.
Hope this clears up most of your questions. If you want to discuss scratchboard further, contact Solomon and we can hook up via e-mail or phone.
Thanks for the interest.

]]> By: Derek Hansen http://www.linesandcolors.com/2007/01/04/mark-summers/comment-page-1/#comment-892062 Derek Hansen Sun, 01 Aug 2010 11:34:43 +0000 http://www.linesandcolors.com/2007/01/04/mark-summers/#comment-892062 I am a student at the Art Institute and have followed Mark's career for many years, putting everything I could get my hands on of his printed material into a binder. I would love to know how to get copies of all the Barnes and Noble illustrations. I have various bags and promotional pieces that they have done over the years. I am surprised that there hasn't been a compilation book done yet (I would be the first in line to get that). I first came across his work in an article done about his technique in a now defunct magazine called Step By Step, which unfortunately I cannot find a copy of (I lost mine in a move). That article and encouragement by a professor and inspired me to take up scratchboard. I simply love working in scratchboard, as it forces the artist to think in reverse. I had the opportunity to see one of his pieces up close at a show in Seattle and the clarity of line and intricacy of weight is astoundingly! It looks like he never makes a mistake, as the piece just had pristine lines that have great variation in width. I am interested to know what materials he uses, such as what type of scratchboard, (is it Essdee, Ampersand, or some other one) and what type of scratch tools does he use? Does he use the pre-inked or does he ink his own? And how does he keep the drawings so sharp and clean? I just can't say enough good things about the quality and artistic integrity of his work. It is always a pleasure to see new illustrations from the Mark, the Scratchboard Master and I bought sheets of his stamps. If any new info, like a book or a website or even a blog or other site comes available, I would love to hear about it (I have been to the Solomon site for inspiration more times than I like to admit). Also, Charley, thanks for keeping this blog up and for all your work on it. I really like it, keep up the inspiring work! I am a student at the Art Institute and have followed Mark’s career for many years, putting everything I could get my hands on of his printed material into a binder. I would love to know how to get copies of all the Barnes and Noble illustrations. I have various bags and promotional pieces that they have done over the years. I am surprised that there hasn’t been a compilation book done yet (I would be the first in line to get that). I first came across his work in an article done about his technique in a now defunct magazine called Step By Step, which unfortunately I cannot find a copy of (I lost mine in a move). That article and encouragement by a professor and inspired me to take up scratchboard. I simply love working in scratchboard, as it forces the artist to think in reverse. I had the opportunity to see one of his pieces up close at a show in Seattle and the clarity of line and intricacy of weight is astoundingly! It looks like he never makes a mistake, as the piece just had pristine lines that have great variation in width.

I am interested to know what materials he uses, such as what type of scratchboard, (is it Essdee, Ampersand, or some other one) and what type of scratch tools does he use? Does he use the pre-inked or does he ink his own? And how does he keep the drawings so sharp and clean?

I just can’t say enough good things about the quality and artistic integrity of his work. It is always a pleasure to see new illustrations from the Mark, the Scratchboard Master and I bought sheets of his stamps.

If any new info, like a book or a website or even a blog or other site comes available, I would love to hear about it (I have been to the Solomon site for inspiration more times than I like to admit).

Also, Charley, thanks for keeping this blog up and for all your work on it. I really like it, keep up the inspiring work!

]]> By: Charley Parker http://www.linesandcolors.com/2007/01/04/mark-summers/comment-page-1/#comment-865223 Charley Parker Thu, 25 Mar 2010 12:54:46 +0000 http://www.linesandcolors.com/2007/01/04/mark-summers/#comment-865223 Mark, Thanks for writing in and keeping us up to date. (Please let me know if you ever put up a dedicated web site or blog, or if you have any major projects you'd like to announce.) For the benefit of other readers, here is the new book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0810984873?ie=UTF8&tag=argonzark&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0810984873" rel="nofollow">Vanity Fair's Presidential Profiles: Defining Portraits, Deeds, and Misdeeds of 43 Notable Americans--And What Each One Really Thought About His Predecessor</a>. Mark, Thanks for writing in and keeping us up to date. (Please let me know if you ever put up a dedicated web site or blog, or if you have any major projects you’d like to announce.)

For the benefit of other readers, here is the new book, Vanity Fair’s Presidential Profiles: Defining Portraits, Deeds, and Misdeeds of 43 Notable Americans–And What Each One Really Thought About His Predecessor.

]]> By: mark summers http://www.linesandcolors.com/2007/01/04/mark-summers/comment-page-1/#comment-865151 mark summers Thu, 25 Mar 2010 05:16:25 +0000 http://www.linesandcolors.com/2007/01/04/mark-summers/#comment-865151 Thanks for the kind words Alli. I was born in Burlington, Ontario, Canada and live about 5 minutes from where I was raised. I've tried every medium there is, but keep coming back to scratchboard. I'm a rather lazy artist and scratchboard forces me to be a little more painstaking in my work. Once you have commited to doing a certain portion of the drawing to a great degree of detail, there are no shortcuts to finishing the entire piece to the same level. I have been doing a monthly series of drawings for "Los Angeles Magazine" for a couple of years, just did the "Person of the Year" cover for Time and did portraits of all the presidents for a book titled "Vanity Fair's Presidential Profiles". This started as a long article I wrote for them about what each president had said about their predecessor. It hung around and Graydon Carter thought there was enough for a book. The interesting thing about it is that the portaits included are my preliminary rough sketches. Saved me about 6 months of scratching. Thanks for the kind words Alli.
I was born in Burlington, Ontario, Canada and live about 5 minutes from where I was raised.
I’ve tried every medium there is, but keep coming back to scratchboard. I’m a rather lazy artist and scratchboard forces me to be a little more painstaking in my work. Once you have commited to doing a certain portion of the drawing to a great degree of detail, there are no shortcuts to finishing the entire piece to the same level.
I have been doing a monthly series of drawings for “Los Angeles Magazine” for a couple of years, just did the “Person of the Year” cover for Time and did portraits of all the presidents for a book titled “Vanity Fair’s Presidential Profiles”. This started as a long article I wrote for them about what each president had said about their predecessor. It hung around and Graydon Carter thought there was enough for a book. The interesting thing about it is that the portaits included are my preliminary rough sketches. Saved me about 6 months of scratching.

]]> By: Alli http://www.linesandcolors.com/2007/01/04/mark-summers/comment-page-1/#comment-864381 Alli Mon, 22 Mar 2010 01:32:18 +0000 http://www.linesandcolors.com/2007/01/04/mark-summers/#comment-864381 Great! I will! Thanks so much! :) Great! I will!
Thanks so much! :)

]]> By: Charley Parker http://www.linesandcolors.com/2007/01/04/mark-summers/comment-page-1/#comment-864370 Charley Parker Mon, 22 Mar 2010 00:13:11 +0000 http://www.linesandcolors.com/2007/01/04/mark-summers/#comment-864370 Try his rep, Richard Solomon for a <a href="http://richardsolomon.com/summers.html" rel="nofollow">bio</a> and mentions on their <a href="http://richardsolomon.com/confab/index.php?s=summers&submit=Go" rel="nofollow">blog</a>. Try his rep, Richard Solomon for a bio and mentions on their blog.

]]>