Sketchbook Saturday – In the style of Al Hirschfeld

I was reminded a few days ago that the remarkable caricature artist Al Hirschfeld’s birthday was this week. That prompted me to go looking for contemporary examples of his line-drawn style. The late illustrator focused on Broadway and entertainment but his impact on modern art style in general was deep and wide.

Hirschfeld’s sketches contain minimalistic details, yet they effectively capture the essence of the subject. He used elongated lines to suggest facial features, hair, and clothing folds. Above, Black and Blues, a contemporary version of this type of style, by Nate Creekmore, an Atlanta cartoonist and illustrator.

Illustrator Anastasia Teslia overpoweringly channels Hirschfeld in this brilliant series of Rock & Roll Sketch Weekends (process shot below). See the whole series here.

Below, more Rock and Roll Sketch Weekends.

This illustration by Lucy Pina – done for an article centred on Deesha Philyaw’s debut short story collection, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies – is typical of the U.K. illustrator’s energetic line-drawn style. See more here.

Fernando Cobos, a Spanish animator, applies the same kind of line drawing caricature style to this sketch about Disney’s Nine Old Men, the original animators hired in the 1920s and ’30s. See more about Cobos here.

Al Hirschfeld (born June 21, 1903, St. Louis,  died January 20, 2003, New York)

The Al Hirschfeld image at the top of the page: 2000 Academy Award Nominees for Best Actor and Best Actress [Laura Linney in You Can Count on Me, Tom Hanks in Cast Away, Russell Crowe in Gladiator, Ellen Burstyn in Requiem for a Dream, Ed Harris in Pollock, Geoffrey Rush in Quills, Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich, Joan Allen in The Contender, Javier Bardem in Before Night Falls, Juliette Binoche in Chocolat], 2001. Ink on board. Collection of The Al Hirschfeld Foundation © The Al Hirschfeld Foundation.