5 Great Draftsmen: Franklin Booth

(part 2 in a series of 3)

The ability to evoke a narrative with great draftsmanship and a 
’lively’ line is something most artists strive for – we’ll look 
at five illustrators that have it in abundance.

Gustav Klimt, Franklin Booth, Chris Van Allsburg, Bill Sienkiewicz and 
James Jean – all have been recognized as gifted artists with 
countless awards bestowed upon them. While they all have distinctive 
styles they share many qualities as artists. A strong narrative 
displayed throughout books or graphic novels is one commonality 
between these stellar artists. Another would be the strong sense of 
anatomy necessary when the work is reliant on the human figure. A 
sense of drama and mastery of composition and brilliant handling of 
color (even with the black and white work of Booth!) are evident in 
all of these artists.

Franklin Booth

Truly a master of pen and ink drawings, Franklin Booth was one of 
greatest Ilustrators America has produced. His unique style seemed to 
make drawings capture all the tone of a painting. The intense detail 
in Booth’s work was actually borne of his mistaking wood engravings 
for pen and ink drawings, and seeking to emulate that level of 
description. Through his interplay of naturalistic elements and 
extreme scale hierarchies we become immersed in a world of his own 
creation. His influence was apparent within contemporaries and other 
artists that followed (look at the drawings of Frank Frazetta and 
Berni Wrightson).

• Auad Publishing (image credit)
• Franklin Booth (wikipedia.org)