Earl Moran

Earl Steffa Moran [December 8, 1893 – January 17, 1984], born in Belle Plaine, Iowa, was a 20th Century pin-up and glamour artist. Moran's first instruction in art came under the direction of John Stich, an elderly German artist who also taught the great illustrator W.H.D. Koerner. Moran also studied with Walter Biggs at the Chicago Art Institute.

Moran later studied at the famed Art Students League in Manhattan, where he took instruction from the muralists Vincent Drumond, Robert Henri, Thomas Fogarty [Norman Rockwell's teacher], and the legendary anatomist George Bridgman. After moving back to Chicago in 1931 and opening a small studio where he specialized in photography and illustration, he sent some paintings of bikini-clad girls to two calendar companies; when both Brown and Bigelow and Thomas D. Murphy Company bought the work, his career was officially launched.

Moran signed an exclusive contract with Brown and Bigelow in 1932 and by 1937, his pinups had sold millions of calendars for the company. In 1940, Life ran a feature article entitled "Speaking of Pictures" which mostly focused on Moran's work and made him a national celebrity. In 1941, Moran helped the magazine publisher, Robert Harrison, to launch a new men's magazine called Beauty Parade, and he later contributed pin-ups to other Harrison magazines such as Flirt, Wink and Giggles.

In 1946, Moran moved to Hollywood though he had already painted many movie stars including Betty Grable, for publicity posters. Soon after his arrival, he interviewed a young starlet named Norma Jean Dougherty who wanted to model for him. For the next four years, Marilyn Monroe posed for Moran and the two became friends. She always credited him with making her legs look better than they were as she felt they were too thin. Moran's work during this time period is now his most valuable; a Moran Marilyn pastel sold for $83,650, nearly doubling the previous record for one of his works, when the Craig MacMillan collection was sold at Heritage Auctions in February 2011.

Moran lived in the San Fernando Valley from 1951 to 1955, hosting fabulous parties, directing and starring in short television films, painting portraits of Earl Carroll's Vanities Girls, and maintaining his position as a star of the pin-up world.

After a move to Las Vegas [circa 1955] and several years of living in the fast lane, Moran decided to devote his time to painting fine-art subjects, with nudes as his favorite theme. Signing with Aaron Brothers Galleries, he painted for collectors until 1982, when his eyesight failed. An interesting note, some of his earlier works for Harrison were signed "Steffa" or "Black Smith".

Moran died in Santa Monica, CA on January 17, 1984.

source: wikipedia

Gil Elvgren

Gil Elvgren [March 15, 1914 – February 29, 1980], born Gillette Elvgren, was an American painter of pin-up girls, advertising and illustration. Elvgren was one of the most important pin-up and glamour artists of the twentieth century. Today he is best known for his pin-up paintings for Brown & Bigelow. Elvgren studied at the American Academy of Art.

Gillette A. Elvgren attended University High School. After graduation he began studying art at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. He subsequently moved to Chicago to study at the American Academy of Art. He graduated from the Academy during the depression at the age of twenty-two. Elvgren joined the stable of artists at Stevens and Gross, Chicago's most prestigious advertising agency. He became a protégé of the talented artist, Haddon Sundblom.

Elvgren was a classical American illustrator. He was a master of portraying the all-American ideal feminine[citation needed], but he wasn't limited to the calendar pin-up industry. He was strongly influenced by the early "pretty girl" illustrators, such as Charles Dana Gibson, Andrew Loomis, and Howard Chandler Christy. Other influences included the Brandywine School founded by Howard Pyle.

In 1937, Gil began painting calendar pin-ups for Louis F. Dow, one of America's leading publishing companies, during which time he created about 60 works. Around 1944, Gil was approached by Brown and Bigelow, a firm that still dominates the field in producing calendars and advertising specialties. He was associated with Brown and Bigelow from 1945 to 1972.

Elvgren was a commercial success. Elvgren lived in various locations, and was active from the 1930s to 1970s. His clients ranged from Brown and Bigelow and Coca-Cola to General Electric and Sealy Mattress Company. In addition, during the 1940s and 1950s he illustrated stories for a host of magazines, such as The Saturday Evening Post and Good Housekeeping.

source: wikipedia

Pin-up demo by Scot Drake "the book club"

Lorenzo Di Mauro

Here's one "fine artist" I discovered while surfing the net, now I'm a big fan=)

Lorenzo Di Mauro

Born in 1954 in Italy, Lorenzo begins drawing comics and illustrations.

In 1980 he gets his early publications included a short illustrated story: "SuperPipe". In 1981 he moves to Rome and joins the Illustrators Association, just born in Italy.

For a couple of years Lorenzo continues to produce comics and illustrations, including his first Pin Up paintings, also beginning his collaboration as freelance illustrator with Italian subsidiaries of the most important international advertising agencies. During the 1980s, the advertising market in Italy offers alluring opportunities of financial reward and professional recognition and soon his time is booked up by these publicity works, painting mostly realistic illustrations.

He also works in publishing, fashion and motion-picture industries. Among other things, Lorenzo collaborates with Peter Greenaway, creating an illustration for the movie "The Belly of an Architect" [1987].

During the 1990s, his rapport with advertising remains quite intense, even if Lorenzo is no longer having so much fun. He works also in multimedia and experiences the creation of a number of interactive CD ROM and Internet animations. Samples of these works are showed at: www.visualshop.it

In 2001, Lorenzo goes back to one of his first passions: the creation of Pin Up paintings. Digital paintings, that is, because at that point he has already replaced his brushes with the graphic tablet.

Lorenzo did begin learning the digital painting since the early 1990s, nevertheless continuing to use acrylic colors, brushes and airbrush as he always has done before. Only after finding the means and the proper manual skill to create with digital media almost all that he was used to do with the natural media, Lorenzo begins using them professionally.

Today, in fact, Lorenzo works mainly in digital, though he sometimes is still using the old tools for traditional illustrations and commissioned works.

Influences: I was always inspired by the masters of the Italian Renaissance and by those of the world Illustration as Norman Rockwell, Frank Frazetta, Boris Vallejo, The Hildebrants and Hajime Sorayama.

Style: I like realistic style but also fantasy. I want to say that my realism is not quite to reproduce exactly the photo references. I love to create dreamy beauties with realistic rendering.

Check out his website: http://www.lorenzodimauro.com/