American (c)ART(oon)IST

Cartoons were popular in all kinds of advertising in the mid-century -- but perhaps nowhere more than in advertising directed at artists. The ad pages of old 1950s issues of American Artist magazine are a virtual goldmine of cartoon styles and subjects.Well known art materials suppliers like Bainbridge...... Speedball... ... and Royal Crest seem to have felt that the best way to win over customers was to take a lighthearted approach - often running...

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Fabulous '50s Cartoon Ads!

Many readers already know that I'm a cartoonist who has specialized in advertising for much of my career. So it'll come as no surprise that I have a real affection for the cartoon art of 1950s advertisments.The reason Today's Inspiration wasn't updated for most of last week is that I had to put every spare minute I wasn't teaching into the preparations for an event I had organized; a day of cartooning workshops/lectures with several of my fellow...

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Don Crowley: "I just feel blessed that this whole thing came along."

Don Crowley was a child of the Great Depression. Perhaps the lingering memory of living in a state of desperate impoverishment, like so many others of his generation, compelled him to work as hard as he did thoughout the first decades of his career. Year after year Crowley patiently drew and painted one assignment after another.  But in the early 1970s, as Crowley reached his mid-40s, he also reached a point many illustrators must grapple...

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Don Crowley: "I was always a realist."

As many readers already know, the world of illustration changed dramatically after 1960. The magazine industry was unable to compete for ad dollars in the face of increased tv viewership. Lucrative assignments from print advertisers had been the lifeblood that had sustained large commercial art studios like Cooper's. Don Crowley could see that times were changing. Like so many others who had enjoyed the privilege of membership in America's most...

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Don Crowley: "Cooper gave me what I needed: he gave me work."

When Don and B.J. arrived in New York in 1953, Don's first job was in a studio near the New York Public Library. When we spoke on the phone about those days Don said, "I don't even remember the name of the place... but I used to go sit on the library steps at noon and think about jumping out into traffic." He chuckled at the memory of his youthful despair."I think I was there for a month and he never gave me a job at all. It was just horrible."...

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Don Crowley: : "I wanted to stay home and finish that painting."

Some things may be destined. In Don Crowley's case, its seems he was destined to be an artist. Like most children, 4-year old Crowley loved to draw with crayons; coloured swirls and circles brightened his young life during the dark days of the depression. When Crowley was just six years old he found a book in his house by Frederic Remington called "Done in the Open." He immediately became interested in art. "It was really inspirational," Don...

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