David Stone Martin (and Friends)

Many artists dabbled in record jacket illustrations during the mid-20th century...but aside from David Stone Martin, I doubt any could claim to have influenced the look of an entire era in record jacket design.DSM made jazz album cover art his domain.Many imitators followed in his footsteps. Here's one by ... I can't quite make out the signature.I suspect that for a time, art directors at every label wanted that David Stone Martin 'look' on their...

Read More

Happy Time for Record Jacket Illustrators

Over the last few years I've accumulated quite a few old illustrated album covers. This week I thought it might be fun to have a look at a few of them.This first one is from Happytime Records (a great name for a record label, in my opinion).The style of the artwork looks vaguely familiar... but I can't quite place it. Its wonderful, in any case.Illustrating album covers back in the day wasn't just a Happytime - it was also Playtime!No idea who...

Read More

Marvin Friedman: "Jews to the rescue"

Marvin Friedman wrote me many entertaining emails with many amusing subject lines. The title of this post is from one of Marvin's emails - just one example of the many occasions when Marvin rescued me - from a dull day or a depressing mood.In that particular message he succinctly described for my benefit a capsule history of American illustration (according to Marvin Friedman):"The history of American illustration: Howard Pyle, Norman Rockwell,...

Read More

WIlliam Meade Prince: A Word or Two About the Technique

By Guest Author Tony GleesonA word or two about my interest in those toned paper drawings: this was a technique that was popularly taught by several of the old-school instructors at Art Center College of Design when I attended in the early 70s.We would use charcoal pencil and white Prismacolor pencil on toned paper to work from models. It was a good technique to teach the study of tonal values and to develop judgment of spotting lights and darks...

Read More