A good read…

 

Vargas at work

Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas

The Spencer Museum of Art holds many originals created by Alberto Vargas for Esquire magazine and is located at the University of Kansas. I have always wanted to make a trek there and see them. A few years ago Stephen Goddard wrote a thesis on Vargas and his work and I am one of many that he contacted for information about Alberto’s technique. I can only surmise that he was familiar with my Vargas derived technique for doing pinups as my work was published as how-to’s in a few art magazines. I credited my technique as being based on Alberto’s from which I gleaned from his work including information from his own writing on the subject in one of his books. Anyway, I am no expert on Vargas or his technique per se’ but I had a couple of clippings on Vargas and one was an ad for Wold Airbrush which is an airbrush he endorsed as his airbrush of choice when he first moved to the U.S. He later used Paasche airbrushes but that rare and obscure advertisment proved insightful to Stephen Goddards essay. The essay can be found Here 

And in the credits I am mentioned in good company including a member of his family! 

-Reid Austin, Michael Broadfoot, Barbara Coleman, Astrid Vargas Conte’, Lou Harbor (Hrabko), Jim Hartley, Bill Leisk, Vallie Pettersen, Edward Reed, Mark Roeyer, Elizabeth Schultz, and Dominque Taddei openly shared their expertise and insights. 

I am also mentioned in the notes: 10 and 22. I thank airbrush artist Edward Reed for sharing this information with me. 

 

so in a way I feel something of a connection to my would be mentor. I feel he is my teacher although posthumously. To be included amongst those contributing to an essay about Vargas where roughly 150 originals are held safely today is nothing short of the most incredible honor I think I could have. So I am already literally a footnote in pinup history!

The Notorious Peggy-Lee!

Just had an awesome photo shoot with Peggy Saturday afternoon! We did some retro 40’s style shots…
Here are but a few….

Spanking Tails 3 book

Spanking Tails 3 A Gallery Girls Collection…

The rounded cheek. The quivering flesh. The anticipation of the sharp and welcome smack! That delightful palm-on-buttock noise! Ah, the wonders of a private school education! In the history of the Gallery Girls books, no one topic has gained more notoriaty (and sales, thank you very much!) as the Spanking Tails series. Here we are at our THIRD outing, and the line of young ladies poised and positioned for tough love has grown ever longer! And not suprisingly, the list of artists lined up to despense said tough love, including Mitch Byrd, Brian LeBlanc, Pablo Kousovitis, Anibal Maraschi, Perla Pilucki, to name but a feverish few! To celebrate this third “much too cheeky” selection of spanktastic excellence, outstanding airbrush artist Edward Reed has created an eye-popping front cover that will leave you breathless and scrambling for your finest paddle! Putting the OUCH in YeeeeOuch! 64 pages black and white plus color covers.
Available at SQP and Amazon.com

Art Scene issue #80

The latest issue of Art Scene International magazine is out now and I am currently proofreading and co-editing articles for issue #81…

Book Available now!

The Art of Edward: Portraits & Pin-ups Volume one is now available at SQP!,  Amazon.com and Heavy Metal magazine  a very limited supply of signed copies also available at my store!

Cheeky!

Just finished a month and a half long pinup illustration project for a book cover!I can’t reveal any details quite yet but let’s just say it spanked my tail!Watch for more information soon! 

Art Scene 2 2008 issue 79

The latest issue of Art Scene International is hitting the European newstands now and in the USA next month.Issue 79 features amazing tutorials by Alon Chou, Marcus Pfeil, Rene’ Blom, Marco Paoletti, Herb Martinez and interviews with Steve Firchow, Emrah Elmasli and Sanjulian. This amazing issue is not to be missed!

 

Art Scene 1 2008

Art Scene issue 78 number 1 2008 is now available in the USA.I have a step by step tutorial on how to create a mermaid in Corel Painter and there is a spread of about 15 of my mermaids shown from the forth coming mermaid book to be published by SQP in early 2009. 

The Rocketeer

In memoriam: Noted illustrator Dave Stevens, creator of “The Rocketeer” and an influential Bettie Page revivalist, died last Monday following a courageous battle with leukemia. He was 52. One of the biggest influences on me was the rocketeer comics and his rendition of a brunette that I had no idea who she was but I loved her and his stylized rendition of who I would later learn about as Bettie Page. I was actually affected by Dave’s work when I was 10 years old. He filled in for about a month doing the Star Wars newspaper daily comic strip. The art originally sucked by I loved Starwars and didn’t miss a single newspaper… when the art changed and the characters actually looked like the actors I knew a new artist was doing it but I had no idea who. I still have those newspaper clippings! it wasn’t until the Rocketeer comic came out years later that something dawned on me that the style looked familiar… sure enough I dug up the old yellowed and dried out cuttings and matched the style to the comic artist. Dave Stevens’ style I would recognize anywhere! I bought the indy Rocketeer comics and his idea for the rocketeer and having Bettie as his girl before anyone one of our time knew who she was I thought was genius! When the movie came out I was first in line. I met Dave briefly at Glamour Con and got my picture taken with him. He was really quiet and seemed a bit shy. I wanted to talk with him more but felt out of my league. And now an icon in the revitalization of pinup art is gone. I have poster book called Just Teasing the Pinup art by Dave Stevens. I always treasured it. too young to go. dammit! Edward

Book Available May 2008

My publisher SQP has informed me that the book is being printed in China and it will be available May 2008.  It will be available through Amazon, SQP, Heavy Metal, and comic book shops around the world. I will have limited copies to sign and offer through my website as well. Here is a sneak peak of the hardcover and softcover of the first book. (The second book is in progress!)