The artwork that I chose was the ‘Gang Fight’ illustration by Ed Vebell. This piece was initially published in Sunday Mirror Magazine on July 10, 1955. Ed Vebell was born on May 25, 1921 in Chicago. It was evident at a young age that Vebell had a talent for drawing. After graduating high school, he won scholarships to three different art schools. Ed Vebell has lived an interesting life as an artist and outside of being an artist. He was a key artist assigned to Stars and Stripes in Europe and North Africa. He also had a chance to be one of the few artists to sketch the Nuremberg trials. Also, Vebell was an Olympic fencer. Vebell was a master draftsman with a physician’s knowledge of human and animal anatomy, which more than likely helped him with his illustrations.

In the Gang Fight illustration, Vebell used gouache on an illustration board to execute. The characters and the setting in the illustration give you a sense of the time period they were based off of. The fashion choice of the characters make you think about how different society was back in the day; as well as the old style lamppost. The red color choice of their clothes make the illustration pop more but it also ties in with the aggressive tone that the piece gives off. That’s something that really attracted to me to this piece. The simple connection from the color choice to the context of piece really made me interested. The old style setting also reminded me of the movies ‘The Warriors’ at first glance.