Andrew Loomis' crowning achievement was this thick volume: the best of all his instruction books. Advanced concepts in picture-making for editorial or advertising illustration.
From the dustjacket:
Intended for the artist who wishes to make illustration a career...Creative Illustration is a real professional course in the subject, worth many times its price.
From Loomis' introduction:
It is one thing to draw the figure well, but quite another to set that figure into a convincing environment, to make it tell a story, and to give it personality and dramatic interest. My purpose is to present what, in my experience, have proved to be the fundamentals of illustration.
From the publisher:
During his career as one of America’s most sought-after illustrators, Andrew Loomis (1892-1959) taught at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, and in 1939 he codified his lessons in his first manual, Fun with a Pencil. Four years later it had already been through six printings, and he followed up over the next two decades with a series of even more successful how-to books that remain the gold standard for artists to this day.
Creative Illustration is considered Loomis’s magnum opus, which is aimed primarily at the professional-level illustrator. It’s divided into seven sections: Line, Tone, Color, Telling the Story, Creating Ideas, Fields of Illustration, and Experimenting and Studies. The Book is filled with instructions, tips, insider experiences, and incredible illustrations.