"America's most famous artists have spent a lot of their time, thought and energy in putting down for you in words and pictures all the ideas and methods they use in making pictures....we are confident you will find it fully expresses the man and his work, and is designed so you can readily understand his way of thinking about picture-making."

The Famous Artists School's Advanced Program which started in 1948 consisted of eleven separate volumes/binders each written and illustrated by a different faculty member (John Atherton, Austin Briggs, Stevan Dohanos, Robert Fawcett, Peter Helck, Fred Ludekens, Al Parker, Norman Rockwell, Ben Stahl, Harold Von Schmidt, Jon Whitcomb). It only lasted for a few years before school president Albert Dorne cancelled the program due to low enrollment and had all the material incinerated (according to an instructor at the school at the time) resulting in the scarcity of the remaining volumes.

This volume is Al Parker's contribution to the Famous Artists School's Advanced Program. An entire course (11 lessons in 192 pages) written and illustrated entirely by Parker, one of the most innovative and admired illustrators of the twentieth century.

"What you will get out of this course: I will do all I can with words and pictures in my course to assist you to become an illustrator. I have tried to keep my course informal, just as though you had dropped into my studio to talk of this business of illustrating. First of all, there are no short cuts, there never were any and there never will be any. However, I can ease the way for you, which is more assistance than I had when I started. In other words, there will be less trial and error if you follow my instructions.

"I can give you the kind of thinking that precedes my painting of a picture. You get step-by-step procedures. I use a variety of procedures myself and I will give you as many of them as I feel are needed. You'll get a thorough idea of how my job goes from manuscript to mat. This information should make you think for yourself and evolve your own methods.... You'll have all the information I could ever give you on how to be an illustrator."

As with all our copies of the Famous Artists Courses, we have verified the contents and completeness of this volume. All the lesson pages are present including all the color plates. The one-page assignment sheet is missing, a facsimile is included.

This set has never been in a binder and the ringholes have never been used. Except for the last two sheets which have two light folds at the lower corners, the pages are Fine.