Today, the Wall Street Journal tells the Wall Street Journal-iest story of them all: the tale of the hedcut stipplers. These unsung heroes work from home, producing 3″ by 5″ portraits of the day’s newsmakers. “While the paper’s world-class reporting has propelled the Journal brand,” writes the Journal, “it’s the stipple drawing, pioneered by Journal artists 30 years ago, that has become a trademark.”

And lest you think this is a weird and archaic pain in the ass for these people, the stipplers reveal that they sometimes speed up the process. By using lines.

Each intricate portrait can take up to five hours to complete, with countless little dots. But in an emergency, artists can produce one in as little as two hours, with more lines and fewer specks.

“We have our little tricks,” says Noli Novak, who has been with the Journal since 1987. “A portrait with less dots will take less time.”

 

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