Ted & Betsy Lewin

Final paper for History of Illustration based off of great american illustrators, Ted and betsy Lewin

Ted & Betsy Lewin

“Be true to your work and your work will be true to you.”

Pratt’s Motto

Illustrators, husband and wife team, Ted and Betsy Lewin both went to Pratt Institute in New York, where they met and found their passion for illustration. Pratt’s motto is, “be true to your work and your work will be true to you,” this motto is something they both strongly believe in and carry it out as a proverb that they live by. Their styles are entirely different, yet they have found a way to combine forces to make fun and educational children’s books. In this essay, the focus will mainly be on Ted Lewins’ work, as his use of water color intrigues me more, yet Betsy has been such a great influence in Teds career and life that I will not leave her out altogether.

I first came across Ted’s work in a book about great American illustrators and fell in love with his mark making and story telling abilities.  Thus when this assignment was given, I jumped on the bandwagon to interview the Lewins’.  I was so eager to get in touch with a real successful illustrator, and was not at all disappointed.

Their love for each other, travel and illustration has given them the ability to come together and make strong bodies of work while exploring the world. Their strength lies in telling the stories of real events, allowing children to learn about the cultures, traditions and happenings around the world through vivid colors and unique mark making.           

Teds medium of choose is watercolor. Although in PRATT he painted predominantly in oils, Ted was drawn to watercolors, which he only explored after he graduated from college through his wife’s probing and encouragement. With his expressionistic use of watercolor he captures emotion and intensity with every stroke that he applies to a picture.  This creates an atmosphere with a thorough understanding of the image in just one glance. 

He enjoys watercolor because of its spontaneity. It has its own mind, and is very unforgiving, thus trying to master it is challenging.  I’m very drawn to watercolor too; the numerous techniques and mark making applications are so appealing. I love that both subtitles and harshness can be created with very little paint. Recently I have been using watercolor a lot, experimenting with different techniques, and how the viewer reads them. This has slowly become my medium of choose, as I aspire to find my own artistic voice.

Teds Influences range from N.C. Wyeth, Normal Rockwell and Winslow Homer, to his classmates at Pratt like Tomi DePaulo and Anita and Arnold Lobell. He stated that when he was in 5^th grade he new he wanted to be an artist, and used to copy N.C. Wyeth’s work to the best of his ability. By copying the masters, Ted learnt certain processes, styles and techniques, thus he concludes that he was able to find his own voice through the masters.  

This is something I have heard and read a lot about, it was even mentioned by Robert Henri in The Art Spirit. I have only copied two pieces of ‘masters, works: Vermeers, ‘Girl with the Pearl Earring’ and DaVincis, ‘Self Portrait’. On both occasions I have seen little glimpses of how they tackled a certain portion of a piece, and it’s been very profitable. For this reason I understand exactly what Ted grasps when copying, and I have started putting this into practice, especially copying Teds works.

One of my favorite works that I feel carries such a strong emotional atmosphere, comes from the book, ‘The Greatest Elephant in the World” illustrated by Ted Lewin. This true story is about the bond between elephant and man. A child and this elephant were born on the same day, where they grow up together. They went through so much, lost each other and then 20 or 30 years later found one another again. This story is so strong in itself that it grips you, then with the added illustrations, tears come to my eyes on numerous occasions. That is why I feel like Ted is such a great storyteller. He brings the images and stories to life. 

The image I will be discussing is the fight for survival in the open water, the reaching and bond between man and beast. Where young Bram is reaching for Mosey’s Trunk. Ted picks the pivotal pregnant moment, which holds the viewers attention and makes them question, “Will they survive, can they reach each other, what will happen next?” Here using a limited palette of raw sienna, black and blue, Ted creates an atmosphere that shows chaos, desperation and emptiness. The picture spans between two pages, exposing the great expand of ocean, where ted decides, like in most of his pictures, not to paint the exact scene that is in writing, but rather simplifying the image, to create more drama, emotion and empathy. He literally paints out the unnecessary events, to create a strong focal point.

Ted also loves to play with contrast, mainly painting the negative or background allowing space and freedom for the lights to come through exposing focal points and movement.

This image however does not use the white of his page. He makes the sky and sea have a yellowy sienna undercoat, creating a somber mode. Working wet on wet he then adds some black and blue to sky

Both Ted and Betsy use the same process to start an image. Tracing paper is a crucial element; where rough sketches on tracing paper are layered together and maneuvered in many different compositions make for planning out the finished product simpler and more efficient. Once the composition is formed and works well, Ted uses a projector and re-draws his well-composed piece onto watercolor paper.  He then places his piece flat on his drawing table, and paints quickly with out much layering, allowing the colors to flow and bond with one another. Which is different to my technique. I love layering; watercolor dries so fast that layering is nearly unavoidable to me. The results are so beautiful, creating crisp lines and fresh splatters. I do however near to the finishing of my piece, work mainly wet on wet. This means I wet the page significantly before applying paint. Then lastly I allow the entire painting to dry, before I add on subtle details.

     I have learned a great deal from interviewing both Ted and Betsy. They have beautiful unique styles, understanding story telling so well, that they capture the viewer at first glance, allowing the emotions of the image to flow into the viewer. I am so grateful for this assignment, and feel that it has taught me not only in ways becoming a better artist, but in becoming a better person and aspiring and following dreams. I find myself reading and rereading the answers from Ted and Betsy, they are filled with little nuggets of power and wisdom. As stated before, “be true to your work and your work will be true to you.” What you put in will eventually come out.