In these early years, photographs of top artists and competitions were scarce making it very challenging to illustrate the articles. Available photos often had to be used repeatedly. Because of this lack of illustrations to depict training stories, artists were often utilized to create drawings to fill this void. As for covers, a large number of them were paintings. Using a painting rather than a photograph was often more practical considering the problems associated with getting subjects who live overseas to Los Angeles for a photo shoot. Another bonus with paintings was that the dramatic aspect could be heightened helping to catch the eye of potential readers browsing the newsstands. Black Belt was doing creative long before Pixar.