Sorel draws directly with pen and ink on paper without preliminary tracing. His characters thus often emerge from a dense tangle of wiry ink strokes, crackling with energy and spontaneity. The effect was sometimes hard won; drawing Frank Sinatra for an Esquire cover was a prestigious assignment that threw him into a panic. His final effort, however, drawn with an extraordinary freedom of line, was a penetrating depiction of a complex, talented man. As Gay Talese pointed out in an accompanying article about the power of celebrity, Sinatra by 1966 was not only a national idol but "the Boss" of an enormous commercial enterprise; his slightest whim could "send vibrations through the entertainment industry and beyond."


Ink and watercolor, 1966
Original cover art for Esquire, April 1966
Collection of the artist
© Edward Sorel

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