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Winter '98 Newsletter |
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San Diego Jack Unruh Illustration |
Jack Unruh: Society of
Illustrators San Diego If you are looking for illustrator Jack Unruh, there is a good chance he has gone fishing. A man of many talents and an adventurous spirit is not easy to pin down. SISD members were very fortunate, then, to have had the opportunity to meet Jack in person, learn about his numerous work assignments and hear some extraordinary travel stories. Baiting the Hook Jack began his career as an illustrator in the Southwest. At the time, New York was the primary market for the hottest illustration talent while elsewhere illustrators worked locally. Jack believed his work was not ready to catch the Big Apple, so he wisely decided to open his own studio in the still-new Southwestern market. Thor Studios was the first business of its kind in Dallas, Texas, with five employees and did pretty much everything. Business was good until Jack was called to active duty in the Berlin Crisis. When Jack returned to Dallas, he decided to seriously focus on his illustration career. He opened another studio with a good friend, Lee Schwartz, and worked late in the night to develop a more personal point-of-view in his illustrations. Using pen and ink, he was able to develop a distinctive "reflective" style that appeared in publications such as National Geographic, Sports & Field, Outdoor Life, Boys Life, Texas Monthly and more. In the late 1960s he added color as his style continued to evolve and gain recognition. |
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Society National Geographic Sports and Field Illustrate Commercial Art Talent |
Gone Fishing One of the benefits of success was clients often sent him on location to research his subjects. Of course, this was wonderful fun for Jack, an avid sportsman and lover of the outdoors. On these trips he had the opportunity to sketch, write in his journal and shoot plenty of reference photos as well as catch a fish or two! For example, one of his interesting assignments for National Geographic was especially memorable. The design solution for the final layout was very difficult because the illustrations had to blend wild flowers from six different parts of the U.S. on only a few spreads. Because National Geographic is so particular about the accuracy of the illustrations, Jack was sent to numerous locations to research and photograph the wildflowers and terrain. Although he did not win any illustration awards, he was very pleased with the final results and later earned a rare cover assignment from the magazine. Usually when Jack returns from location he goes through a series of steps in order to arrive at his final composition. First, Jack begins with rough sketches then goes to very tight pencils. Next, he copies them to a size that will fit in an artograph so he can project them on illustration board. Finally, with the photo reference at hand, he does the final drawing in ink and color. He says the color is not well thought out in advance it "sort of gets there". As you can imagine, Jack uses plenty of pens (they last 20 minutes to 3 days!) and admits becoming an expert at pens and cleaning ink spills. By the way, ink does not come out of the carpet or shoes, so do not test this at home folks. Often the approval process for the sketches takes "plenty of time" but only 3 to 5 days to actually draw. Jack says, the most important part of the whole process is having great reference. As a result, he keeps a large collection of photos from his assignments on file and enjoys finding "textures and things" when researching. He has even started using the internet as a tool to locate the right reference. |
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Catching the Big One It seems just as Jack had netted the Southwest Market, art directors in New York began to wake up to Jack's remarkable talent. One job lead to another and soon Jack was doing fantastic and sometimes humorous conceptual and editorial assignments for clients like Avia, Saturn, IBM, NBC, Exxon, Simpson Paper, Rolling Stone and more. Still in demand for his reflective style as well, Jack says he feels like he has two careers going on side-by-side not including the time it takes to research fish...somehow, he always finds time to do that. So, the next time your looking for Jack, you may find him having a good laugh at a far out lake or stream. Jack may have finally hooked the "Big Apple" but like a true fisherman, he never forgot how to enjoy the wait. |
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