Drawing You In

This Coca-Cola advertisement could only be accomplished by an illustrator in the mid-twentieth century. Today, this scene could be copied through photo-manipulation software or AI. But painting was the go-to medium for the illustrator who understood human anatomy and had the faultless ability to capture everyday life and all that it entails in a composition that draws the viewer into the moment.

George Bernard Whitcomb (1920-48) was an American artist and illustrator from South Bend, Indiana, who earned a full scholarship to the Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis, securing his early promise. He worked as a commercial artist for Grauman Advertising in Chicago, creating some iconic full-page Coca-Cola ads seen in Life magazine and the Saturday Evening Post.

Due to his untimely death at twenty-seven from heart failure, accentuated by damage from childhood rheumatic fever, Whitcomb was buried three days later on his birthday. Understandably, records of his professional work are limited, and most online searches will default to a more famous Whitcomb artist, Jon (1906-1988).

Stanley Steamer & The Airbrush

Though Abner Peeler invented the first airbrush device, which he called the "paint distributor," it was Francis Edgar Stanley who patented the first airbrush pistol in 1882. Stanley, a photographer and inventor from Massachusetts, along with his twin brother Freelan Oscar Stanley, built the famous Stanley Steamer automobile. Stanley designed the airbrush device to assist with retouching photographs and named it the “Stanley Air Brush.” It revolutionized photo retouching. The tool used hand-pumped bellows to push air through a small nozzle, producing a fine, controlled spray of color.

The airbrush quickly found its way into the automotive industry with its greater precision and speed for painting cars, motorcycles, and other vehicles. Charles Burdick patented an airbrush device in 1893, more similar in design to what is most familiar today. During the 1930s and 1940s, airbrush pioneers included George “The Petty Girl” Petty, who used airbrushing to create highly realistic illustrated pin-up girls that were adopted as nose art on some WW2 aircraft. Alberto Vargas made famous his scantily-clad “Vargas Girl” illustrations, considered by many at the time to be an obscenity.

Hollywood makeup artists adopted the airbrush, offering a revolutionary way to smoothly apply color. By the 1960s, the hippy generation used airbrushing for dreamy psychedelic artwork on album covers, surfboards, panel vans, and, of course, the Volkswagen Transporter. During the 1980s and 1990s, airbrush shops became a cultural phenomenon, offering customized designs on apparel and more. Other artists could often be found at county and state fairs. The airbrush shops faded by the new millennium as digital printing and mass production became more commercially viable.

Airbrushing retains its versatility in various art forms, including illustration, portraiture, professional graffiti-styled art, makeup, fashion, murals, cake decorating, and vehicles. 

Interactive Airports

An engaging 1961 illustration over forty years before outdoor observation decks were off limits after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. No more appreciable sounds of prop-engined airliners mixed with jet airliners, the smell of aviation fuel, or hearing support vehicles jockey around to provide services for the airlines. 

Maybe the artist needed TWA's approval on the fuselage livery of their Boeing 707s. The tail livery is nondescript, however. A livery history at TWA.

Mark Twain Expressway

 

A section of Interstate 70 in St. Louis, Missouri is designated the Mark Twain Expressway. Interstate 70 traverses nearly the width of the US, serving major metropolitan areas such as Denver, Kansas City, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Columbus and Baltimore. The west end connects with Interstate 15 at Cove Fort, Utah with no plans to extend I-70 west beyond that point. Bill Fleming's illustration for the Portland Cement Association captures the highway's original, simple course near Lambert-St. Louis Airport in 1960. 

Body by Fisher

 

"Pound for pound -- what do you find?" is the headline accompanying this 1949 illustration. Do all sorts of pounding, thumping and slamming to discover the solidity of steel. I guess. The Fisher Body Corporation was a Detroit, Michigan automobile coachbuilder founded by the Fisher brothers in 1908 but its beginnings trace back to a horse-drawn carriage shop in Norwalk, Ohio, in the late 1800s. Since 1919 a division of General Motors, it was dissolved to form other GM divisions in 1984. Noted for many innovations, Fisher Body designed slanted windshields to reduce glare in 1930, dual windshield wipers in 1936 and produced GM's first airbag in 1974. The name and its iconic "Body by Fisher" logo were well known to the public, as GM vehicles displayed the emblem on their door sill plates until the mid-1990s.

Flight by American. Home by Hertz.

 

The Hertz Corporation, originally known as Rent-a-Car Inc., was founded by Chicago, Illinois native Walter L. Jacobs in 1918. Within five years, his fleet generated annual revenues of approximately $1 million. John D. Hertz, owner of Yellow Truck and Coach Manufacturing Company, developed an interest in the brand, purchasing the company in 1923. It was then renamed Hertz Drive-Ur-Self System. 

After three years of ownership, John Hertz sold the rental car brand to General Motors Corporation. Under their ownership, the company opened its first rental car location at Chicago's Midway Airport in 1932, introducing the first one-way rental plan in 1933. Hertz repurchased the brand from General Motors in 1953 through his other company, The Omnibus Corporation, which he renamed The Hertz Corporation.

The 1955 illustration is by cartoonist and illustrator, Austin Briggs (1908-1973).

House in a Utopian Future

If you spotted the flat screen television and the countertop "notebook" then congratulations are in order. Dad looking trendy in his "cargoless" shorts and over-the-calf stockings is a bonus. The 1956 futurism illustration was by Fred McNabb for Disneyland. McNabb did a series of similar illustrations for New Departures Ball Bearings under the headline, "New Departures of Tomorrow." Most of his illustrations included at least one accurate prediction.