Rococo Aphrodite

Just to keep you from nodding off, let's throw in another painting from Sir William Russell Flint, entitled Rococo Aphrodite, from 1960 — executed when he was EIGHTY YEARS OLD. A little formulaic, but hey—gives hope to the rest of us doddering artists.

A MidSummer-Night's Dream—part 5

Another folio of some of William Heath Robinson's finest work.

Oberon. Flying between the cold moon and the earth,

Cupid all arm'd.

Helena. I'll follow thee, and make a heaven of hell,

To die upon the hand I love so well.

21 Years Ago

Here we have a gorgeous promotional poster with a Patrick Demarchelier photograph of Christy Turlington for American Photographer magazine from November 1989.

My Kind of Philosophy

From an old publicity still I found wedged in the middle of an old book on philosophy. Oliver Hardy and Stan Laurel—I love these guys.

Tripp is a Trip

By popular request (alright, one person asked for it), here are some more drawings by Wallace Tripp. Quirky and punny, Tripp has fun with lines, both sketch and phrase.

Just a quick Tripp now, longer Tripp later.

Virgin on the Ridiculous

Wallace Tripp loves to get lost in the words.

Spy

Superman existed for years before he was finally published in 1938. But his creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, those boys from Cleveland, had lots of other material published prior to Superman's debut, all non super hero of course. Yet, their earlier characters were but alter egos, it seemed, to Clark and Lois and Luthor.

Looking at the Spy feature from Detective Comics #14, Lois and Clark are acting out in the characters of Sally and Bart—secret service agents, published months before Action Comics #1. This had to be a daydream for Clark that he didn't have to be meek and mild, and the girl was his to have.

See What Happens

Happy Friday the Thirteen. See how Churchy handles it over at Whirled of Kelly.

Men Working

Have you ever seen the Teenie Weenies, the tribe of little people created by William Donahey several generations ago? They are these really little people that coexist with our normal size objects. Over the years, Donahey drew and painted many many of these images for newspapers, magazines, books and advertisements—all for the amusement of children.

Except for this painting. Not meant for children, it was painted for the amusement of his fellow journalists. He certainly had a lovely style to his techniques, quite the inspiration for at least a couple of our modern children's book illustrators (hmm, and looking at the costumes and sign in this image, maybe for Men at Work's YMCA).

Photo Portrait

Of course you can always count on an interesting photo from Annie Leibovitz, but I really like this portrait photo of Winona Ryder. This epitomizes the sort of photo portrait I like to shoot.

Wind-Swept

I'm showing here, from another source, a self-caricature of WH Robinson, which at first glance seems quite eccentric, but makes more sense when you see he's making fun of his own predilection of drawing wind-swept hair, as seen in the detail below of one of my favorite of the favorite drawings from MidSummer's Dream.

A MidSummer-Night's Dream—part 4

Full from my fav'rite book, this folio but contain the gem of my eye.

Sorry, when I start reading Shakespeare, I start talking like him. What I'm trying to say is that these particular illustrations contain perhaps my favorite of the favorite, though still with more to come.

Puck. She never had so sweet a changeling.

Titania. But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport.

John and Yoko

39 years ago this month (1971), John Lennon and Yoko Ono moved to New York City.

Here is a beautiful illustrative portrait of them by Burt Silverman, illustrative portraitist extraordinaire.

Helen O' Troy

Say what you will about Al Capp—his political views or his mercurial personality—he was responsible for bringing some purty gals to the Sunday funnies, here in 1971.

A MidSummer-Night's Dream—part 3

Some more William Heath Robinson ink illustrations from probably my favorite book ever, A MidSummer Night's Dream.

Hermia. Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet.