Before Liz and Marilyn, there was Andy the illustrator. Andy Warhol began his career as a commercial illustrator on New York’s Madison Avenue for clients such as Tiffany & Co., Columbia Records, and Vogue. 1950’s New York saw a massive post-World War II boom in the economy and the production of consumer goods. Warhol’s arrival coincided with this extensive change in the motivations and strategies behind advertising and production. His consistent and unique designs piqued the interest of his clients earning him commissions and collaborations with some of the biggest brands of the day. Though stylistically different from the Pop art that would rocket him to international stardom, these early drawings offer a glimpse at an artist well on his way to establishing an art movement that would change the way the world conceived of contemporary art and its connection to pop culture.
Much of Warhol’s early illustrations utilized his blotted line technique, invented and honed as an art student at Carnegie Mellon University. The rudimentary technique combines original drawing with ink transfer, a seemingly mechanical process. He would start with an initial illustration and place tracing paper over the design, then apply ink over a section of the image followed by pressing an absorbent sheet of paper over the wet ink to transfer the image. He would continue this process in small sections until the entire image was reproduced. This new technique allowed him to repeat an image and create varying illustrations along a similar theme. As a commercial artist, he might utilize the blotted ink drawing to transfer the image of a high heel, customizing each print with hand coloring to provide various options for the company’s final approval. It was typical in this era for Warhol to add a splash of watercolor or an indulgent pop of gold leaf to customize a print or add dimension to a drawing.
“By inking over the top of a drawing, section by section, and blotting the ink onto a separate sheet of paper to create a kind of monoprint, the original image becomes degraded, the line becomes broken, and the composition seems hesitant and somewhat beyond the creator’s control.”1
His simple line drawings contain a child-like whimsy – though that’s not to say he didn’t take his work seriously. Warhol took to heart a piece of advice from one of his art teachers who told the young artist to paint for himself, not what others wanted to see. This would validate his desire to draw his favorite things: cherubs, shoes, cats, and often young men. Across these drawings and hand-colored prints, we see Warhol as a compulsive creator, documenting life and fantasy with the stark clarity of ink on paper.
