Rockwell on Rockwell: How I Make a Picture

by Norman Rockwell

First edition. 50 color plates and over 400 in black and white. 176 pages. cloth, dust jacket.. 4to..

Genres: Art, Drawing, Nonfiction, Biography

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1979

About the author

Norman Percevel Rockwell was a 20th century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States, where Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine over more than four decades. Among the best-known of Rockwell's works are the Willie Gillis series, Rosie the Riveter (although his Rosie was reproduced less than others of the day), Saying Grace (1951), and the Four Freedoms series.

Reviews

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Takeaways from the book:
1) The Idea is the most important part of the picture. No amount of rendering can fix a bad idea.
2) Imagination should be used in the ideation phase and when composing the picture. Don’t forgo the aid of models/references when creating characters and/or the scenes they live in. All of an artist’s creativeness cannot equal God’s creativeness.
3) Nothing should be shown in a picture that doesn’t directly contribute to the story.
4) It is better to do a lot of work on one picture than to just do a lot of pictures.

[Serge Pierro · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent and in-depth look into the mind and techniques of Norman Rockwell.... by the man himself! Covers all aspects of his painting workflow. Includes using models, photographs, charcoal, etc. Copious amounts of paintings, drawings and reference photos are included. Amazing content!

[Katrina Van Grouw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book on Rockwell’s artistic process, going in detail about how he gather ideas, sees if they are good ones, and then produces finished paintings. So easy to understand and it was fascinating getting a glimpse into the mind of this great artist. I would recommend this to anyone who is an admirer of Rockwell’s work, or who is just curious about his artistic process: this was a fantastic resource I will certainly be referring back to.