Morris tribune., 1901-04-06
AINTING BIG SIGNS.
ARTISTS WHO DEVOTE THEIR TALL
EMIT TO ADVERTISING PURPOSES.

EMIT TO ADVERTISING PURPOSES.
some of Them Have. Had Years Of
Training In Drawing and Color
Work, and Some Have Studied In
Famous Old World Atelfers.
Although the vivid advertisements Of
the excellences Of foods, ointments
clothing, all mechanical appliances
known to man and a thousand other
things never dreamed of in the philoso
ply of a hundred years ago are contin-
j ually catching the eye and possibly
shocking the artistic sensibilities Of the
beholder, few of the ordinary observers
give a moments question to the max
/ ers of advertisements The advertis-
ing craze has grown of late to such
| huge and unlovely proportions that any
brief account fails to explain its work
j ings. The office of a large advertising
concern is one of the busiest places in
town. Artists are constantly appear
ing with designs for the firm, a small
army of men with paint pots and brush
es are lowering about waiting to be
sent out, and everywhere are gay evil
dences of the results Of all this labor.
"Who are the men that paint these
'heroics pictures one sees on unused
walls and lofty fences" asked re-
porter Of one Of the men who keeps
these subordinates busy.
"They are not the people you think
them, fancy" was the answer 'Tn-
stead Of being daubers, with about the
ability necessary to WELD Whitewash
brush, our best men are real artists.
By this I mean that many Of them
have had years Of training in drawing
and color work. Several of them have
studied abroad in the ateliers of well
known men. A man whom saw paint
ing a head on a wall yesterday is a
night instructor in a Brooklyn art
school. Recently one Of our men paint
ed on large wall the biggest portrait
ever attempted. He had studied five
years in the Paris art schools"
''Why do they take up this work ?"
''The other doesn't pay. It's a case
Of 'commercialism in art They find
that they can't make the real thing
pay, so they come to this common
calling. There's money in it. Why,
our star painters get $50 a week. The
daubers, Who put in backgrounds,
don't earn more than $40 or SIS q
week"
The men who paint the designs in
various inaccessible and conspicuous |
places have with them small copies
Of the designs to be reproduced. Long |
experience makes them expert in ac-
curately tracing the design upon the
chosen surface. Although the familiar
advertisements scattered over the city
seem exactly alike and one face seems
the exact counterpart of another, yet
closer inspection will show various
points Of difference. In the case of a
very familiar picture which is display
ed from one end Of the United States
to the other, when it was first brought
out one man was hired for the sole
purpose Of painting that one design,
and to do this he travelled from Maine
to California.
''Not the least of our difficulties"
said the advertising man, lis finding
places to put our signs. We hire men
who do nothing else but go about and
obtain permission from owners to put
up billboards on their premises, use
! vacant wall or decorate a fence or a
roof. 1t needs great tact to do this.
When there are objections, they must
be overcome, and after this is done
he owner often gets the idea that his {
available space is worth thousands Of [
dollars to us and to him. The expe- i
fences of advertising men among {
,armers and tramps would make q
mighty interesting book" t
why do you say tramps"
"Oh, the tramps are our worst enc
MES. They build fires behind our \
Dillboards and burn them or else tear 9
hem down out of sheer wantonness." S
When asked about the price blank I
rick wall in a conspicuous part of {
lew York would bring to it's owner if
e let it for advertising purposes, the r
dvertising man laughed and said he
ould not tell that, but he did not mind a
aging that he was now paying $4,000
year rent for wall in the middle Of t
be shopping district This is not an s
nusual sum TO pay" he added. .'for
UGH prominent positions" 81
Advertising firms are liberal sub t.
rribers to all art magazines, particu- Il
lrly to those French art periodicals I
1hich display the newest drawings Of a
le still popular poster. The ideas Of S
ne foreign artists are taken freely and
inverted into gaudy designs for adj
ertising the latest song or a new cigar
'ithout the least compensation, since, r.
$ the advertisers assert, American p
leas are assimilated abroad just as q
tremendously. z.
Not all the large reproductions Of fig y
res and faces on our streets and along a
le roof tops are handwork. Many OF q
lem are machine made. BY process q
kin to that of making Autographs ma o.
hines have been invented to lay the p
'lors automatically. The finished 9
roduct, quite devoid Of personality, n
resents accurately a copy Of the work q
= IIH V Nr