On this day, April 19, 1918, illustrator William Arthur Smith was born in Toledo, Ohio. Smith studied art with Theodore Keane who had taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In addition to creating many story illustrations for The Saturday Evening Post, Smith also did illustrations for many of the major magazines. He
Charles Stanley Reinhart (1844-1896)Americans Abroad–The Copyist in the Louvre, 1889Story illustration for “The Copyist in the Louvre” in Harper’s Weekly v. 34 (January 4, 1890): 12.Ink on illustration boardLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, CAI – Reinhart, no. 25 (C size) There is a bit of theatre surrounding the creation of art. This
On this day, April 18, 1884, illustrator Frank R. Paul was born in Vienna, Austria. Paul came to the U. S. to study architecture in New York. Unable to find a job, Paul worked first for newspapers and then for publisher Hugo Gernsback. Paul’s early contributions to the visual worlds of science fiction have caused him
On this day, April 17, 1914, cartoonist Emmanuel “Mac” Raboy was born in New York City. Raboy worked on Fawcett Comics’ Captain Marvel Jr. and as the Sunday strip artist of Flash Gordon for over 20 years.
On this day, April 16, 1912, illustrator Garth Williams was born in New York City. As a boy his English artist parents moved back to the United Kingdom where he was trained as an artist. After the war, Williams illustrated E. B. White’s book, Stuart Little. He went on to illustrate Charlotte’s Web, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s
On this day, April 15, 2000, the talented and influential writer and illustrator Edward Gorey died in Hyannis, Massachusetts. Gorey studied at Harvard University and for a semester at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His early work was illustrating book covers and sometimes interior illustrations. By 1953 he was writing and illustrating his own
On this day, April 14, 1890, Gerald Curtis Delano was born Marion, Massachusetts. After studies at the Art Students League in New York and at the Grand Central School of Art with Harvey Dunn and Dean Cornwell, Delano went west to experience life and settled there. His western subject illustrations were in demand by many of the
On this day, April 13, 2009, the world’s longest webcomic, Homestuck, officially begins. Written, drawn, and animated by Andrew Hussie, Homestuck is a complex construct of a hypertext fiction built on serialized visual storytelling.
On this day, April 12, 1907, author and animator Hardie Gramatky was born in Dallas, Texas. After studies at Stanford University and at the Chouinard Art Institute, his skills as a watercolorist found him hired as a senior animator at the Walt Disney Studios, a job that lasted six years. Later Gramatky worked as an illustrator
On this day, April 11, 1964, illustrator, artist, and author Hannes Bok (pseudonym for Wayne Francis Woodard) died in New York City. During his extensive career, Bok created many illustrations (cover color and interior black and white images) for various pulp and science fiction magazines.