Blog written by: Fabian Musto | Written on: Wednesday 8th September 2021
Drawn from: Thursday 29th to Friday 30th July 2021
Artist: Fabian Musto | Inspiration: Jørgen Myller | "The Band That Jack Built"
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On Thursday 29th July, I completed my Grayson Perry style tapestry of Marcleston. Later that evening, I was wondering what to draw next, and I remembered a well-taken photograph of Jack Hylton's orchestra that was taken in April 1935. The original photograph can be seen to the right of this text, and I became eager to replicate it in the classic cartoon style of Jørgen Myller, obscure Danish cartoonist and animator (lived 1910-95).
29th July: It was around 8:45pm when I began the drawing, after three hours of completing my tapestry drawing of Marcleston. The first figure I drew was the bandleader Jack Hylton, where I drew him a cheerful mouth that took two attempts; at the end, I decided to give him a smile instead. To his left is his main arranger Billy Ternent, and he was easier to draw unlike Jack Hylton.
At 10:20pm, I called it a day and gave up on the drawing; I drew fourteen figures in less than one hundred minutes, which impressed me! I was looking forward to finishing this.
30th July: I woke up to draw the last ten members, which I completed by 11:34am! I made some improvements on the members, e.g. enlarged Freddie Schweitzer's face shape.
After lunch, I drew the backdrop, those being the curtains, cymbals and harp. I drew the curtains using a 0.5mm fine liner instead of my pencil, and personally, they look fine. During the second half of the afternoon, I finished refining the drawing, so the figures and backdrop stand out well. I decided to fill all the members with my markers, which took three hours to complete (break during 6pm).
The first member I infilled with my markers was Jack Hylton, and I made the wrong decision of colouring his hair brown! He was the only member of the orchestra (in the band picture of April 1935) that had blonde hair. Most of the members had black hair, and I believe they wore grey suits, while Jack wore a blue overshirt (from a guess). The texture of the lines on the members' suits were drawn using my pencils, which gives a nice effect.
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REFERENCES:
Jack Raine (trumpet player with Hylton's band, June 1922 to December 1936)
Maurice Loban (violin player with Hylton's band, September 1930 to March 1936)
Eddie Hooper (violin player with Hylton's band, January 1930 to December 1935)
Gilbert Webster (percussion player with Hylton's band, May 1932 to March 1936)
George Swift (trumpet player with Hylton's band, late 1934 to December 1939)
Leslie Carew (trombone player with Hylton's band, October 1930 to August 1936)
Jack Farrell (violin player with Hylton's band, March 1935 to March 1936)
Andre de Vekey (bass and guitar player with Hylton's band, early 1934 to early 1938)
Melle Weersma (arranger with Hylton's band, March 1935 to October 1936)
Jim Easton (saxophone player with Hylton's band, March 1935 to early 1938)
Brian Lee (guitar player with Hylton's band, March to May 1935)
Sonny Farrar (guitar player with Hylton's band, January 1930 to September 1935)
Ken Tucker (vocalist with Hylton's band, March to April 1935)
Harry Chapman (harp player with Hylton's band, September 1932 to December 1936)
Benny Daniels (saxophone player with Hylton's band, late 1934 to December 1939)
Les Maddox (violin player with Hylton's band, March 1935 to December 1939)
Philippe Brun (trumpet player with Hylton's band, January 1930 to March 1936)
Eric Breeze (trombone player with Hylton's band, January 1932 to December 1936)
Dave Shand (saxophone player with Hylton's band, August 1931 to February 1936)
Billy Munn (piano player with Hylton's band, January 1930 to March 1936)
Jack Hylton (director of Hylton's band, May 1921 to April 1940)
Billy Ternent (arranger with Hylton's band, April 1927 to April 1940)
Dick Willows (violin player with Hylton's band, October 1931 to December 1936)
Freddie Schweitzer (saxophone player with Hylton's band, March 1933 to April 1940)
TRIVIA: This was the first drawing I drew of an orchestra since 11th February 2021, the time when I also drew Jack Hylton's band.
-Phillippe Brun was placed on the third row in my drawing, because there was no room to fit him in my A3 drawing! Eric Breeze and Brian Lee squeezes in the drawing, but fits in well.
-This was drawn by looking at my laptop (picture to left), no tracing paper included here and this took over a day to draw and refurbish.
CONCLUSION: This is another favourite drawing of mine from 2021, and I'm still impressed of how I accomplished to draw the twenty-four bandsmen in less than ten hours time! The markers add a nice touch to the drawing, especially when a black and white filter is added onto the drawing. In the future, I will learn to colour Hylton's hair as blonde (though it appeared dark until the mid 1920s).
As of this writing, I am currently making a drawing of Jack Payne's orchestra. Stay tuned for that!
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"Jack Hylton and his Orchestra" by Fabian Musto
Written on Wednesday 8th September 2021, 21:10 / 9:10pm - 23:20 / 11:20pm.
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