Prince Buckethead

The ultimate Snow White DVD has come out, but if you don't want to spend the money on it, you can read the story right here for free. This is the Sunday comic strip adaptation that played in the funnies during the winter of 1937—38 for twenty weeks, drawn by Hank Porter.

What a great time to be a kid.

Prince Buckethead

Prince Buckethead

Prince Buckethead

Understated

A restored ultimate DVD has been released for Disney's Snow White, quite a breakthrough for animation when it first came out (understatement). It was a difficult undertaking (understatement) for the studio, inventing the processes and techniques on the fly. Three years earlier they made a Silly Symphony short—The Goddess of Spring—which was a dress rehearsal of sorts (understatement) for animating 'realistic' human figures. Here is a model sheet from that short:

I love model sheets of any kind!

Diosa del Fuego

My other favorite Mexican calendar painting by Armando Drechsler, Diosa del Fuego (Goddess of Fire) from 1952, one of my favorite years as well.

Xiuhcoatl

One of my two favorite Armando Drechsler calendar paintings:

Xiuhcoatl—1942

The Temple of Karvul

One of my favorite artists of the high-tide years of Heavy Metal was/is Paul Kirchner. He brought an underground-comix flavor to Euro-comix surrealism. I don't know if Kirchner was a fan of Fred Schrier, but this beautifully drawn little 3-pager is Schrieresque, and I mean that as a sincere compliment.

A Rib-Tinkler

A Kelly Sunday, a Kelly Sunday, a Kelly Sunday. Yes, believe it or nut, it's a Kelly Sunday from 45 years ago . . . TODAY!

Princess with a Puma

If I wasn't always scrambling to make a living, always facing deadlines, I'd have more images to any given post. As it is, I'm lucky to have time to post one image here or there, hopefully at least daily.

So here is one of my favorite 'pin-up' artists, Armando Drechsler, a German painter transplanted to Mexico in the 1920s. I've got more, but I've also got deadlines. Later.

Princesa Con Puma—1942

PUBLIC NOTICE

Just a reminder—and I know you know this—all artworks displayed on this 'blog are copyrighted by their respective creators. Commercial use of material from this site is absolutely NOT authorized. I am posting this material as a non-profit educational effort to help inspire higher standards of quality in the artistic community, and as stated in the title of this 'blog—an autobiographical examination of the artwork that has affected my life.

Raise the Barr

For some reason I receive more comments emailed to me than posted to the blog, and I received a number of them requesting to see more of George Barr's illustrative work for Jack Vance's The Dying Earth, published by Underwood/Miller in 1976.

Well, OK then.

Raise the Barr

Raise the Barr

Raise the Barr

A Favorite Craft

One of the great illustrative painters of our time—Kuniko Craft:

Vibrant, Alive & Full of Color

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696—1770), Venetian painter and printmaker, may have lived and worked in the REALLY old days, but his work is anything but moldy or dusty. Vibrant, alive and full of color, Tiepolo's paintings have been an inspiration for many a modern artist/illustrator. Roy Krenkel credited him (as well as many others, of course) as an influence in his work. 

Woman Satyr

Another Woman Satyr

A Baccante, a Satyr, and a Nymph

Sorceress Giving Counsel

Apollo and Daphne

The Lament for Icarus

Another Herbert Draper painting, one of his more famous, The Lament for Icarus, and a few of his sketch studies. I hope I'm not alone in the fascination of study drawings and how they are instrumental in the architecture and spirit of a painting.

Bio-Tech Wonders

Back when Omni Magazine semi-successfully brought sci-fi to mainstream newsstand readers, the painter Ralle was omnipresent for many issues, the editors using his gallery paintings as illustrations. Here are a handful of his surrealistic portrayals of bio-tech wonders.

There Lies Titania

My favorite Faerie painting by John Simmons is below, There Lies Titania. This scan is from a print I bought in a mystical shop in Glastonbury, a place where you can believe in anything.

Faeries of a 'Lesser Painter'

John Simmons (1823—1876) has been termed a 'lesser' faerie painter of his time—partially I think because he painted pin-ups with gossamer wings. But, well, um, he was pretty good with botanical painting too.

Like a Drugstore in the Night

This particular Pogo strip was published exactly 45 years ago today. Happy Sunday.

Aaarrgh

Aaarrgh, all day oive bin waitin' fer me dee ess ell to be workin', 'n' it jus now be doin' it, so HERE! Ye scurvy bilge-water barnacle-sucking wharf rats, have at et.

Aaarrgh

Les Diaboliques

This mysterious and evocative illustration by Felicien Rops is entitled "The Sphinx" and was the frontis for a circa 1900 edition of Les Diaboliques. Wish I could read French. 

C'est la vie.

Poster and Source

Poster by Gary Kelley, superstar illustrator, late 20th century:

His source material from just about 100 years earlier—a photo of Sarah Bernhardt as Pierrot in Jean Richepin's pantomime Pierrot Assassin:

Chance Meeting

Richard Corben's techniques were most seductive, bringing beauty to ugliness, and actually a bit of ugliness to beauty. Corben's work was sort of a bridge between latter day undergrounds and mainstream adult comics. Specializing more in sci-fi horror, this is a rare excursion to the land of Edgar Rice Burroughs:

More HJ Ford

Various classic fairy tale illustrations by classic fairy tale illustrator HJ Ford.

Lysistrata

With apologies to Mr. Door Tree who has just posted a nice batch of Norman Lindsay art, (click here), I was just preparing to post Lindsay's illustrations for an early edition of Lysistrata. There's a bit of overlap, but I wanted to show these drawings in some context of the words, so I proceed. 

Lindsay was a major influence on Roy Krenkel and a number of other artists and certainly was his own person in art and life. I have some other Lindsay coming up as well.

Lysistrata

Lysistrata

Lysistrata

Comixscene

Anyone out there remember and enjoy Jim Steranko's Comixscene back in the 70s? Great art and stuff to read back in those days.

Cool tabloid size art by Joe Kubert!

Jaime

My two favorite covers by Jaime Hernandez:

Modern Master

A modern master of illustration who uses old masters' ways is Kuniko Craft. Her illustrations are always drop-dead gorgeous. This is one of a series for the Dallas Opera. I'll be posting more of Craft's work, one by one, here and there.

More Struzan

This is a scan of the cover from a comics adaptation of the Disney movie. I bought it just for the art by Drew Struzan, but of course. 

Astounding Oeuvre

Drew Struzan occupied the commercial illustrator niche formerly held by Richard Amsel. Mr. Struzan is now retired from the commercial art rat race, but his oeuvre of work is astounding. Just take a long admiring gander at his amazing official website here.

Going through my albums (remember when lp albums were like mini posters?) the other day I was glad to see I hadn't yet passed this one on, one of Drew's early fine illustrations:

Amsel

Richard Amsel's work was always fresh and lively, with a feeling of solidity merged with design elements. Not an easy task. A great illustrator of the 80s.

Amsel

You can see, between above and below, that Amsel worked closely to reference photos (well, he had to—famous faces had to be as recognizable as possible and be rendered quickly for deadlines).

Before Kewpies

Before Rose O'Neill was famous for being the creator of Kewpies, she was a self-taught  illustrator of talent in an arena dominated by men. Before Helen Gurley Brown transformed Cosmopolitan Magazine into a sex and the single woman theme, it was a venue for general stories and good illustration.  And that's what we're looking at here, from the 1930s.

Wuxtry!

Good morning. It's a Kelly morning all day. Today and 45 years ago.

Mini-hiatus

Today's my daughter's birthday and I'll be hanging out with her. See you tomorrow.

Barr Hopping

George Barr's work is delicious.

George Barr painting for Jack Vance's The Dying Earth

George Barr and Alicia Austin

George Barr and Jeffrey Jones

George Barr and James Shull

George Barr

Bernhardt as Gismonda

Mucha wasn't the only artist of his time to portray Sarah Bernhardt — he was the most famous artist to do so. As an actress, Bernhardt knew the value of PR image, and so made the effort to go beyond the theatre stage to portray her characters via the great artists of her time.  In doing so she became the most iconic actress of that time.

Here below, she is Gismonda, Duchess of Athens in Sardou's play—"greatest of Bernhardt's artistic triumphs", as portrayed in 1896 by Theobald Chartran. 

And below from here is Mucha's famous poster of Bernhardt as Gismonda from 1894.

Sexy Renderings

Alex Raymond's spaceship renderings were almost as sexy as his renderings of women. Almost.

Below is another of the HUGE Flash Gordon (& Jungle Jim) pages that I rescued from my Grandma's canning workshop in her basement, MANY years ago:

There are many purists who like black and white panel art only. I'm not one of them. It's beautiful of course, but color breathes life into the art. Below is from the Nostalgia Press edition of Flash Gordon.

Awaiting Our Application

The Hubble Space Telescope is back in action, delivering images that astound and magnify our perception of our universe, having received a terrific upgrade service by our magnificent astronauts. Outstanding. 

Somewhere out there is a galactic empire awaiting our membership application.

Sea Horns

This may be an ordinary subject for a travel poster, but the impact of its design is such that I can actually hear the deafening blaat of sea horns every time I look at it. Don't you hear it too?

Design by Kenneth Shoesmith, advertising Candadian Pacific, printed in London, 1933.

Very Essence of 'Exquisite'

This, to me, portrays the very essence of the word 'exquisite'—both the design and the rendering. Created by Joesph Chaumet for Maharaja Tukoji Rao Holkar III of Indore in 1911, it is a design for a shoulder ornament — platinum set with diamonds and emeralds.

The rendering is watercolor and gouache on paper

Halcyon

Ah, for those golden days of yore.  Halcyon, by Herbert Draper.

People don't always realize how much preparation goes into a painting. Every detail has to be worked out. For instance, sometimes dozens of drawing studies have to be made for each of the figures in a painting. Below are Draper's studies for those figures way far in the back on the upper right. 

Golden Material

I don't know why I gripe about modern artists and illustrators. There are so many great ones out there right now, creating a golden age of their own. 

If you haven't already been there, go see work by James Jean, at ProcessRecess. Powerful, unique, golden material.

A Soup Opera

My sakes! Another Sunday, Kelly Sunday come 'round. They keep comin' faster 'n' faster.

Rooted in the Past

Of course, Charles Vess is another wonderful modern illustrator rooted in the past . . .

Charles Vess_Companions to the Moon

Sensibility of Earlier Times

Of course Michael Kaluta is one of a number of modern illustratora with the aesthetic and sensibility of earlier times:

Michael W. Kaluta—Faramir & Eowyn

Gives Me Hope

Every once in a while I lament the passing of the golden age of illustration, feeling that the magic has been misplaced among modern illustrators. And inevitably I find myself mistaken.

Among many other examples by fine current illustrators, here is a framed piece by Omar Rayyan, who has a wonderful website at Studio Rayyan, and a great blog. There you will see other great work by Omar and Sheila Rayyan.

Fireflies

I came across this human firefly costume design by Georges Lepape. It was originally in the book Decors et costumes pour L'Oiseau bleu de Maurice Maeterlinck, published in 1927. 

Well, it reminded me of one of the earlier posts on this blog, a 1952 Batman story with art by Dick Sprang, called, mmm, "The Human Firefly". There are some similarities, and of course it could just be coincidence. Yet inspiration comes from odd places sometimes.

Above, Georges Lepape—Le Lucioles (Fire-Flies)—1927

Below, Dick Sprang—The Human Firefly—1952

Legendary

These ads with art by Stark Davis, from the 1920s, have my vote for the most beautiful automobile advertisements—EVER. And there were others in this series. When I was at the Art Institute of Chicago, Davis was legendary among the instructors and students.

It has to be admitted, at least from my point of view, that the typography of 'Lincoln' in the background adds a lot to the appeal of these graphics; the name itself is classic as is the type font, and the subtle coloration is gorgeous. The cars themselves are pretty nifty.

Lincoln Coupe—1928

Lincoln Cabriolet—1928

Lincoln Berline Landaulet—1927

Lincoln Club Roadster—1928

Lincoln Town Sedan—1928

Biography from Spencer Jon Helfen Fine Arts:

 Winthrop Stark Davis was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1885.  He subsequently lived and worked in Chicago, where he was affiliated with several arts institutions including the Palette and Chisel Club.  Davis exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1924 and at the Chicago Galleries Association in 1930, winning prizes in both shows.

 During the 1920s and 1930s Stark Davis’s illustrations appeared on covers of the Ladies’ Home Journal, and in numerous advertisements, and from 1927 to 1929, Davis’s artistic and colorful “Bird Series” of ads for Lincoln automobiles ran in popular magazines such as Country Life and Home and Garden.  A typical ad would feature a Lincoln sedan or coupe in the foreground, with a peacock, a wide-eyed red bird of paradise, or a condor dramatically filling the background or framing the scene.

 During his time in Chicago, Davis would make trips to Santa Barbara, California, and subsequently relocated to Los Angeles, where he worked at the Disney Animation Studios and exhibited at the Ainslie Gallery in 1936.

 By 1947, Davis had retired from painting and was living in Morro Bay, a seaside town on California’s Central Coast.

 Stark Davis passed away in Marin County, California, in 1950.

Shining Through

Comic books are, obviously, a collaborative effort. The story 'ShelfLife' from Green Lantern 171 (1983) is a team creation, but Alex Toth comes shining through. This story is 'bronze age', but it has the look and feel of the best of the 'silver age'.

ShelfLIfe

ShelfLIfe

ShelfLIfe

Tyltyl

An interesting group of illustrations by Herbert Paus, from the 1920 edition of Tyltyl by Maurice Maeterlinck. For this work, Paus seems to be channeling several artists' styles, yet bringing his own style to it as well. For instance, I see some influence by Franklin Booth, JC Leyendecker and Charles Robinson. Yet it still rings true for Paus. 

This was deep in the golden age of book illustration.

Tyltyl

Classic Days

Here's a side of Chesley Bonestell's artwork that many people are not aware of. The name Bonestell is synonymous with scientific and visionary space art, but this painting from 1974 hearkens back to the classic days of art deco. What a grand artist.

Chesley Bonestell—Selene and Endymion