Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Coming up with subjects for Admiration of Benefit (as well as illustrating them) has been an interesting challenge. I look up to a great many people and I've drawn many of them already. What makes this series different, at least for me, has been my attempt to do draw people the general public may not immediately connect with me, or Siteway. Fred Dretske, for example, was a huge influence on my academic development, my writing style, my brain. I'm not too sure he's a household name, though. My third grade teacher was probably an influence on a great many students who attended Springvale Elementary during that era. I'm not saying these are idiosyncratic choices but they are, I think, just a little bit different. ¶ Mort Drucker, legendary illustrator and caricaturist, is my subject this week. His work is unparalleled, as David Apatoff points out, and lately it has become apparent to me just how many hundreds of hours I spent as a kid studying Drucker's work in MAD. I read the words too, it's true, but the real magic was happening in the pictures. The closest I came to Mr. Drucker was a few years back when the ad agency I was working for hired him to do a Mr. Clean poster. I remembered thinking: "So he still works as an illustrator. Hmm. Maybe this illustration-as-a-career idea isn't so crazy." It's not that I thought you'd get rich doing it but it was something you do for a long time and in many different veins, developing your craft over a lifetime. While Al Hirschfeld's line work inspired me to think big, Drucker's work was so awesome it simply could not be ignored. It's deep in my brain. I recommend picking up old MAD magazines for Drucker's beautiful drawings alone. ¶ Did you know that Monet used to draw caricatures? ¶ You still have some time to see four of my framed prints at April Maloney Salon (178 Avenue Road). They'll be up for the rest of the month and they're for sale. The Katharine Hepburn is $900, the Alfred Hitchcock is $600, and the Tom Wolfe is $100 (the Audrey Hepburn has been sold).

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Antony Hare is a freelance illustrator whose work has appeared in publications including Esquire UK, Maisonneuve, Forbes, Annabelle Mann, The Improper Bostonian, Bon Appétit, the Globe and Mail, and National Post (for which he won a Silver Medal from the Society of News Design). His work is at the meeting point between portraiture and caricature. Antony is a member of the Society of Illustrators and works from his office in downtown Toronto. ¶ Learn more about Antony.


Siteway was launched in 1996. It is Antony Hare's personal web site and is affiliated only with him. It contains his gallery of illustrations and blog since 2000. His illustrations are available for sale and for licensing in film and advertising. Siteway World is Siteway, Phelts, Tonicville, and Coastalmatic. Siteway is updated every week, usually Tuesday, with a new feature illustration.