Trade Secrets

I love the art of the late Rowland B. Wilson, equally skilled in cartooning, watercolors and conceptual art for animated films. I have yearned for a comprehensive compendium of his work, to no avail. HowEVer there is a book on the horizon that I am pre-ordering, that I would think all life-long students of art will want to as well. It's called, ahem, Rowland B. Wildson's Trade Secrets: Notes for Cartooning and Animation, and you can pre-order here. It sounds really inspirational.

Wilson's Playboy cartoons were always lovely to gaze at, with their spontaneous lush watercolor treatments. Anybody remember his dynamic ads for life insurance where the person who was unknowingly seconds away from death would cheerfully say, "My insurance company? Why New England Life, of course", or words to that effect?

Below, one of Wilson's many lovely film concept paintings.

Rowland B. Wilson — The Little Mermaid — concept painting

© Walt Disney Productions