Another Look at Charlie Allen

Early in my correspondences with Barbara Bradley (who was then the retired head of the Illustration Dept. at the Academy of Art University in San Fransisco) we discussed the work of a mid-century illustrator from the West Coast named Charlie Allen. Bruce Hettema of P&H Creative had sent me a cropped scan of just the hands from the ad you see below and Barbara and I marveled at the quality of this amazing illustration. Barbara mentioned that...

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Another Look at Ernest Chiriaka

Sad news arrived this morning that Ernest Chiriaka passed away yesterday, April 27, 2010, at age 96. His obituary is at David Saunders' Pulp Artists website.This seemed like the right time to take another look at our previously presented series on the artist from 2006, which was made possible thanks to the generosity of David Saunders and Illustration magazine's Dan Zimmer...Ernest ChiriakaI always have a link in my sidebar to Dan Zimmer's Illustration...

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Another Look at Bob Peak

I know I said I was only going to present one new scan each day this week... but these Bob Peak illustrations for 7-Up from an early 1960s ad campaign are SO cool, I couldn't resist sharing a few.Art directors and brand managers; why why why won't you invest yourselves in seeking out today's Bob Peaks and assigning them to major national ad campaigns like this? Why the same old photo solution as all your competitors again and again and again? Isn't...

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Another Look at Frank Reilly

* You may have noticed that lately my posts have been somewhat sporadic. My new career in teaching is taking up more of my time than I had imagined - not that I'm complaining, because I'm having a blast! But in an effort to get back to posting every weekday, I've decided to present some "reruns" - posts from past years that are worth a second look (and will actually be brand new to more recent followers of this blog). I'll begin each day with...

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Album Covers: "sophisticated, enlightened artwork"

Robert M. Jones, Art Director, RCA/Victor Records, writing in the November 1960 issue of American Artist, concluded:Though color photography presently dominates album cover art...... there is evidence that the taste of the record buyer is maturing. He is demanding a sophisticated, enlightened art work.Musical content is also becoming increasingly important.Fortunately, a semi-nude pretty girl is no longer enough to sell the product...... to an audience...

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The Mad, Mad, Mad Mad, Album Cover Art of Jack Davis

Below, from the book "The Art of Jack Davis", the legendary cartoonist's first album cover , from 1957.(You can view a scan of the actual album cover here)AoJD author, Hank Harrison wrote, "With his first black and white album cover... Davis started an avalanche of top quality album art which no single artist has been able to match."Harrison lists nearly a hundred albums featuring Jack Davis art - and that's not including movie soundtracks like the...

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Album Covers Artists: "a long and impressive list"

Robert M. Jones, Art Director, RCA/Victor Records, writing in the November 1960 issue of American Artist:The list of artists and photographers who have contributed to album cover art is long and impressive. Among the better known names are the painters: Rufino Tamayo, Eugene Berman, Joseph Hirsch, Ben Shahn, Doris Lee, Buk Ulrich, Eugene Karlin, and Herschel Levit; the printmakers: Antonio Frasconi, Fritz Eichenberg, and Joseph Low; the graphic...

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