An Intro to Gil Elvgren Art 1914-1980
If you are the type that prefers videos, at the bottom of this whole thing is a video that shows photos of studio models next to the art they helped to create.
This grinning guy right here, is Gil Elvgren. He's a native of St. Paul, Minnesota if there any St. Paul fans or residents reading this. :-)
If you've ever seen old footage or photos, or even in movies set during the second world war, you might have seen planes and other vehicles with a woman painted on it like this or in some similar fashion...
You can probably thank this guy for helping to inspire servicemen of the time period to do this.
This first one from 1937 is called "Out on a Limb".
Elvgren originally was to follow a career path in architecture. This changed after taking art courses at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. He later went on to Chicago and the American Academy of Art.
This one from 1937 is called "Thar she blows".
Upon graduating during the depression he went right to work for the ad agency Stevens & Gross with other well-known artists of the time such as Haddon Sundblom and Al Buell.
This one from 1939 is called "A Knockout".
He also worked for companies and clients such as Louis F. Dow & Co, Brown and Bigelow, Coca-Cola, The Saturday Evening Post and Good Housekeeping.
This one from 1936 is called "Dog Gone".
Have you wondered how these artists created this stuff? How do they know how to draw the poses and how do they know how shadows fall on things? Models of course! Take a look at how Gil Elvgren took from real life and made it into art. Here are these comparison shots!
Some of the models that worked with Elvgren were Myrna Hansen, Donna Reed, Barbara Hale, Arlene Dahl, Lola Albright and Kim Novak.
Finally at the bottom, a video!
Youtube Video: Gil Elvgren Pin Up Girls
sources:
www.thepinupfiles.com/elvgren1.html
www.pinupcartoongirls.com
www.kingsgalleries.com/gil-elvgren/
www.vangeva.com/gil-elvgren/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gil_Elvgren
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