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Illustration Details

Why Leyendecker or Rockwell?

With any illustration or concept art, I first notice its ability to transmit something, and evoke feelings with just one look. I search for characters that convey their own emotions. And I look for overall composition, as well.

The first time I saw a Joseph Christian Leyendecker illustration I knew that I had to represent his work in 3D. I began exploring the work of both Leyendecker and Norman Rockwell, whose work was massively influenced by Leyendecker, and I fell in love with both artists. I loved the way they represent everyday life in their painting, as well as their use of art as a protest against the social injustices of that time. I even loved their own personal stories.

For this particular project, I ultimately settled on a 3D representation of one of Leyendecker’s works, one of his iconic covers of The Saturday Evening Post. I was conscious that I’d need to use Marvelous Designer, so I set about learning how this software could help me to create a piece of artwork that was a suitable homage to Leyendecker’s image. And I was also already considering how the tailor in the image might provide a little link to the world of sewing, both in real life and in 3D.

JC Leyendecker’s original magazine cover, published in April 1916.

Illustration analysis

The piece consists of two main characters, connected by the tailor’s arm. The challenging part when it comes to translating the illustration into 3D it is to provide the continuity to the scene between the connection of the two characters, and also to credibly represent in 3D some of the characteristic elements of Leyendecker’s work, such as the wrinkles in the clothing or his characters’ expressiveness.

The perspective in this scene presents some difficulty as well. Here, Leyendecker fakes some elements of the perspective in order to get that final look, such as the perspective of the tailor’s right arm, behind the boy, or some of the anatomical proportions. When you’re viewing a scene in 3D, potentially from a range of different angles, you can’t really get away with this sort of visual sleight of hand; any visual trickery is immediately much more obvious. And so it’s here that you need to find a balance between a completely faithful adaptation of the original work, and recognizing the parts you have to sacrifice to remain as true as possible to its overall concept.