Franklin Booth (1874-1948) learned to draw by studying wood engravings in magazines while he was growing up on a farm in Indiana. He mistakenly thought the engravings had been created with pen and ink, and so developed his highly unusual drawing style simulating engraving lines.
I usually prefer drawings with a more direct and expressive line, as opposed to clusters of lines used to create values. There always seems to be more painstaking effort than necessary in Booth’s drawings. Still, when you look at extreme closeups of what Booth accomplished, you have to respect his consummate craft.
I’m impressed that as a wrangler of all those lines, Booth is able to maintain such control over lights and darks. That’s not easy:
Contrast Booth’s drawing with the work of other, lesser artists who let their lines get out of control:
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| John Buscema |
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| Reed Crandall |
Some fans are impressed by the sheer level of effort in drawings containing thousands of fine lines, as if the level of work gives the picture credibility. But Booth’s gift has nothing to do with making lots of scratchy little lines. It’s not the manual labor, it’s the control.
