The Art of Summer Reading: Al Wiseman

You can tell by the heat and humidity around these parts that summer has definitely arrived. As an adult, I find myself hiding inside, enjoying the comfort of my air conditioned studio. But as a kid, I spent days like this riding my bike, fishing for brook trout in a nearby stream, going swimming at the pool or playing baseball at our local park...... and reading under a big shady tree. Reading comic books and chapter books; that was probably my...

Read More

The Art of WoW! featuring Doris Jackson

Every Wednesday I'm featuring a female illustrator of the mid-20th century, hoping to create greater awareness of all the talented women illustrators, designers and cartoonists who perhaps are less well known than many of their male counterparts.One recent discovery (for me) was a terrific artist named Doris Jackson. I have a few issues of Parents magazine from 1961 and '62. Doris Jackson did double page spreads in two of the six issues I own. Jackson's...

Read More

Steven G. Dobson, Famous Artist School Alumnus

Sometimes it seems like every illustrator of the mid-20th century must have worked in New York, Chicago, Detroit or San Francisco/L.A. That's because we've come to know so many of them by seeing their credit lines and signatures on illustrations in magazines or on books, catalogues and posters published in those major centres. But as long-time readers will already know, there were countless talented artists working in smaller towns and cities all...

Read More

Muriel Wood, a Canadian Illustrator

As today is Canada Day, I thought I'd like to showcase a Canadian illustrator. And because over the last few weeks my interest has once again turned to female illustrators, I chose to share some work with you today by Canadian female illustrator Muriel Wood.I actually don't have a whole lot of information on Wood - or very many examples of her work - but I did have these three lovely spreads from Chatelaine magazine, from 1971 and '72 (you can see...

Read More