Page 17 - 1925 November - To Dragma

TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI 97

COMMERCIAL ART

A SKED TO WRITE about the Natchitoches A r t Colony and about
my work, I confess I had visions of a two-volume book,
but the request had mercifully stated that it was f o r the Voca-
tional Guidance Department, so after much elimination and
boiling down of mental chapters I shall try to pass on to you
something that I hope will be of definite help to the art student
who wishes to enter the field of business art.

Unfortunately there is no recipe for becoming a successful
artist. There are as many different methods as there are people,
but from my own experience and f r o m the experiences of others
I have found a few outstanding requisites f o r getting into the
field—"all things being equal."

For my own convenience I have divided that type of art into
commercial art and illustration.

Under commercial art I have placed all detailed representa-
tive drawings and paintings of commodities such as alarm clocks,
locks, candy boxes, department store accessories, ordinary letter-
ing, etc. For this, the artist must be a good draftsman. One
who is not a good draftsman but who knows spacing and compo-
sition can be a "layout" artist arranging copy and sketches on
pages, etc. Illustration requires all this and more, opening a
limitless field f o r artistic achievement. I t takes two forms,
illustration f o r stories and the like and f o r advertising.

M y advice to the art student is first to obtain as much expe-
rience as possible on school annuals and magazines or on any
publication whatsoever i n order to become familiar with the
different treatments required in drawings f o r different types of
reproduction. A visit to a printing or publishing establishment
is invaluable. There is a large field, however, f o r work which
is not reproduced, as in poster work f o r movies, department
stores, banks, etc.

Of all the things I could tell you the most important is to
have as many as possible neatly mounted samples of your best
work in every line but especially in the line i n which you are
most interested. The publishers and advertisers have no way of
knowing what kind of work you do except by seeing samples and