Dean Cornwell (American, 1892-1960) painted illustrations with stable, memorable backgrounds, which attracted favorable evaluations from journalists of his day.

A author for the Brooklyn Day by day Eagle mentioned: “no carelessly sketched-in backgrounds right here, flimsy and unstable, a mere set for the figures, upon which the odd illustrator concentrates his efforts as a result of he considers they inform the entire story.”  

Cornwell would visualize the backgrounds when it comes to how he would construct them along with his personal palms, and he acknowledged the worth of data gained via the palms.

This is how Cornwell put it: “I assemble my backgrounds in my thoughts simply as if I had been truly constructing them with bricks and mortar. I observe the identical psychological processes as does the builder himself.” 

Cornwell, a grand-student of golden age illustration instructor Howard Pyle, regarded the artwork of portray as an pure extension of the guide work of a bricklayer or a carpenter. 

He mentioned: “It has all the time been a principle of mine that an illustrator should know easy methods to use his palms apart from in portray and drawing; he ought to perceive carpentry and constructing. Howard Pyle used to inform his pupils that they need to contemplate their brains the superior and positively the equal of these possessed by the lads who constructed the buildings he’s illustrating.”