On this day, April 29, 1894, Pete Martinez was born in Porterville, California. Martinez studied art at the Mark Hopkins School of Art in San Francisco and then at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Art. Known as a Cowboy artist, Martinez also served in the cavalry in WWI, worked as a jockey, and a rodeo cowboy.
On this day, April 28, 1885, Howard Everett Smith was born in West Windham, New Hampshire. He studied at the Art Students League in New York, with Howard Pyle in Wilmington, Delaware, and at The Boston Museum of Fine Arts School. Smith’s illustrations appeared in Scribner’s, Harper’s Monthly, and in the Ladies Home Journal.
On this day, April 27, 1988, illustrator Jon Whitcomb died in Menlo Park, California. Whitcomb majored in English and studied at Ohio Wesleyan University and Ohio State University. As a student he began drawing illustrations for student publications and after found work making advertising illustrations. After joining the Cooper Studio in New York Whitcomb became known
On this day, April 26, 1902, Vernon Simeon Plemion Grant was born in Coleridge, Nebraska. Grant studied art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Early in his career he landed the job of creating the gnome-like mascots for Kellogg’s Rice Krispies. He also created advertising illustrations for General Electric, Gillette, and Hershey’s and
On this day, April 25, 1996, graphic designer and illustrator Saul Bass died in Los Angeles, California. Bass studied at the Art Students League in New York and attended night classes at Brooklyn College. In the 1940s Bass began working in Hollywood doing work for film ads and eventually he also created film title sequences and
By Elisabeth Pulido, grad student MICA’s MFA Illustration Practice, Fall 2013, Critical Seminar Final Paper As super heroines go, they’ve always had a difficult time separating themselves from the sexism of their era either through ridiculous weaknesses, gender role quandaries, and character delegation as either Nymphs, Amazons or Madonnas. They’re supposed to epitomize female
By Il Sung Na, grad student MICA's Illustration Practice, Fall 2013, Critical Seminar, Final Paper Is it a book only for children? Is it easy to make one and to be an author? A well-known British author John Burningham said “If you tell people you do children’s books, they say, ‘What fun!’ There is no
On this day, April 24, 1913, The Woolworth Building in New York was opened. Designed by architect Cass Gilbert, this rental prospectus with illustrated drawing of the skyscraper was offered with the comment that this soon to be opened building was the “Highest Building in the World.”
By Eric Ruiji Li, grad student MICA's Illustration Practice, Fall 2013, Critical Seminar, Final Paper World War II, which was the biggest war in past hundred years, influenced most countries and brought a tremendous change to world politics. Japan, a vanquished country who waged a war of aggression on its Asian neighbors, experienced a
By Abigail Malate, grad student MICA's MFA Illustration Practice; Fall 2013, Critical Seminar Final Paper Within the genre of science fiction, there always exists a special interest in a vehicle-- specifically a starship--that is central to the story. From the USS Enterprise to the Millennium Falcon might we list myriad famous starships. Less common, it