You know those pictures on the back of Reader’s Digest (RD) in recet times? They look like modern day Normal Rockwells with punny titles. Anyway, are they real, or computer generated? The lines are too perfect to be hand-drawn. And, not that I’m an art expert, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard of an artist using a straight edge. (It’s all free hand, right?) So, what’s up in today’s art, like RD’s?
Youch! My typos read like a big Feudian slip! i.e.: Normal Rockwell? :rolleyes:
Sorry, folks! - Jinx
Here’s his page on the RD site. I really like November 2003 and September 2003.
I don’t know why an artist wouldn’t use a straight edge, for drawing straight lines!
Lots of artists use a straight edge. It’s their own choice. Illustrators do, of course, and I’m sure if they are also fine artists they’ll transition such techniques also.
I’m glad you brought this up. I meant to start a thread mentioning somthing about the chuckle I got from the August '04 art (available via Helena’s link) when we got our copy. It really looks like the girl just below center has a perfect, Don Martin-esque hole blown through her upper chest. I know it’s an ice cream bar, but the likeness is uncanny. 
They look to me a little too much like Norman Rockwell, like Payne doesn’t have his own style and is just imitating what worked before. Except for the heads: Payne’s characters seem to have disproportionately large heads. But I suppose that they do work, in their way.
And I see no reason why an artist (or illustrator, if you make that distinction) should not use a straightedge, or a computer (and why would that not be “real”?), or any other tools he feels appropriate.
Why fight it? Just go with the flow, baby! 
I liked the “Table for Two” from February, 2004. The look on the waiter’s face is perfect.