NORMAN ADAMS
The most
successful, wealthy and famous Illustrators
considered Robert
Fawcett to be the “Illustrator's Illustrator.”
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If
Robert Fawcett was the Illustrator's Illustrator
then Norman
Adams was commercial art's Babe Ruth.
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Norman Adams became
commercial art's Babe Ruth because he
defied “Nonart's
Rule” that separated the business of Illustration from the
realm of “Art.”
He did this by painting
illustrations that looked far better
than they would appear in print.
To ordinary
illustrators Norman Adams was some sort of freak who put needless
detail
into his illustrations, detail that would be lost when
its image was printed.
What Norman Adams
knew, and the professionals of commercial art,
like Charles E
Cooper and Robert Fawcett, took for granted:
the extra detail
Norman Adams put into his originals might be lost when in print
but
it would easily get him all sorts of jobs
that the other
illustrators would have to work hard to get.
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Robert Fawcett
had heard about Charles
E Cooper hiring a rookie
who was scoring all sorts of
home-runs with his illustrations.
To Robert Fawcett Norman Adams
had to be something special because
Cooper had hired him eagerly
when there were literally thousands of perfectly good artists
and illustrators
who were dying to get an interview let alone a
job
with the “preeminent” Charles E Cooper Inc.
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As a rule Robert
Fawcett did not have to see the originals of Illustrators to judge
them. This was
because he took “Nonart's Rule” for
granted:
“In commercial art the published images always
looked better than their originals.”
But with Norman Adams
he had to see the originals
to understand why Cooper had hired
him so eagerly.
Robert Fawcett went to an exhibition put on by
the Society of
Illustrators
specifically to see the works of Norman Adams.
Fawcett was so impressed if not “stunned” with
Norman Adams' paintings that he had to go
and personally
introduce
himself to this rookie, Cooper's pride, Norman Adams.
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The
untrained eye might need a magnifying glass to observe in Norman
Adam's originals
what sometimes “stunned” the
trained eyes of the professionals of commercial art,
like Charles
E Cooper and Robert Fawcett
and later Bill
Erlacher
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It was Norman Adams' ability to exploit Magic
Realism and trompe
l'oeil techniques
to make his paintings look good
–
with detail that obviously went way beyond the realm of photography
–
that got him jobs easily in commercial art ...
often
lucrative jobs that most other established Illustrators
would
have to work hard to get. 
The
Nonart's Rule that Illustrators followed to make a living
actually
created the much misunderstood word: “Nonart.”
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Ever
since the dawn of printing Illustrators have followed Nonart's
Rule:
the larger the original illustration
the better
it looks reduced in size for publication, print.
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– Art, as a rule, is created so it looks good hung on a wall. –
Illustrators, as a rule, never painted illustrations to be hung on a
wall.
They painted images that would look good when reproduced
in print.
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Nonart's Rule: when an original
image/painting has to be manipulated
electronically or
photographically to look good
then it, the manipulated image, is
the “Art” that looks good
and the original it makes
looks bad is its “Nonart.”
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