Artist Research (N.C. Wyeth)

I am pretty sure this is the manliest drawing I have ever seen in my life.

INJUNS!

• Drew many manly things.
• Both an illustrator and a painter, and considered them seperate disciplines. 
• Oldest of four brothers.
• Went out west, visited the Navajo, worked as a cowboy, delivered mail for money for the trip home.
• Tended to portray Native Americans in a sympathetic light.
• Hoped to earn enough from illustrating in order to become a REAL FER SERIOUS PAINTER but never did. Eventually grew really bitter and disillusioned with commercialism because of it.

Jessie Wilcox-Smith

Jessie Wilcox-Smith (1863-1935)
JESUS CHRIST I HAD THIS LADY'S ILLUSTRATIONS IN ONE OF MY BOOKS WHEN I WAS LITTLE I ALWAYS WONDERED WHO DREW THEMMM
Anyways, yeah. Worked as an illustrator drawing covers for really femmy magazines like Good Housekeeping and all that. Also kid's books, as evidenced by my owning a copy of one of 'em. The Society of Illustrators has only accepted like ten women into it's Hall of Fame type deal. She was one of them. She was one of Howard Pyle's proteges, as well. She drew a LOT of kids. I had a hard time finding any of her drawings without them.

Artist Research (Egon Schiele)

• Protege of Gustav Klimt.
• Did a shitload of self-portraits.
• Wasn't actually as ugly as depicted.
• Associated with art nouveau movement (the hey?)
• Founded the 'New Art Group' with other students after leaving the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Sounds like something a group of MCA kids would do.
• Employed his towns teens for artist's models.
• Served in WWI, but because of his skill as an artist was given duties far away from combat.
• Both he and his wife, Edith, died of the Spanish flu in 1918. He was 28.

Artist Research (ARTHUR RACKHAM HNNGHH)

So this guy is basically my favorite artist ever.

Basically Rackham is one of the most famous fantasy illustrators PRETTY MUCH EVER he did all kinds of fancy watercolors and probably made a shit-load of money off've it, which is nice because he was born into a family of twelve (in 1867) and you do not grow up rich in a family like that, you are lucky if you are not dirt-poor in a family like that.

He initially worked for a weekly magazine, but quickly turned his attention to illustrating for books. He did not always possess the 'Rackham style'; that was produced first for the public in his 1905 illustrating of Rip Van Winkle. Other fairy-tales illustrated by Rackham include: Aesop's Fables, Mother Goose, A Christmas Carol, The Romance of King Arthur, English Fairy Tales, Cinderella, The Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel, Irish Fairy Tales, A Fairy Book, The Allies Fairy Book, Comus, A Wonder Book, The Tempest, The Vicar of Wakefield, The Chimes, The Night Before Christmas, The Compleat Angler, The Arthur Rackham Fairy Book, Tales of Mystery and Imagination, The King of the Golden River, Goblin Market, The Pied Piper, Peer Gynt, The Wind in the Willows and more.

Artist Research (Howard Pyle)

• Wrote and illustrated children's books.
• Began the Howard Pyle School of Illustration Art
• 'The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood', Pyle's 'classic', is still in print!
• Drew a lot of pirates! I like this dude.
• Lived 1853-1911.
• Died of a sudden kidney infection!

Artist Research (Maxfield Parrish)

MAXFIELD PARRISH (1870-1966) HEY MY SISTER HAS A POSTER OF ONE OF THIS GUY'S PICTURES

He was born in Philadelphia, son of painter Stephen Parrish. His given name was 'Frederick', but he jacked 'Maxfield' off his grandparents because, come on, Maxfield just sounds so classy.

He was first commissioned to illustrate L. Frank Baum's Mother Goose in Prose in 1897, and went on to illustrate a great many popular children's books such as Arabian Nights, which are now of course all highly valued collector's items. He also drew covers for magazines, such as Life and Collier's! His paintings commonly featured chicks lounging around in Grand-Canyon-esque landscapes, and displayed strong neo-classicism influences. The color Parrish Blue was named after him!

Artist Research (Joseph Leyendecker)

Joseph Leyendecker - Safe Sex is Hot Sex.

That's pretty much how you can sum up this dude's life. He was responsible for the creation of the 'Arrow Collar Man', at that time a man considered to embody the pinnacle of THE MANLY VIRTUES. Also people think he might have been pretty gay, and by pretty gay I mean that he was having sex with a man most definitely. His lover, Charles Beach, is thought to have been the original model for the Arrow Collar Man. (Which is kind of funny, because women were writing letters trying to find out who this guy was so they could mack on him.) The Arrow Collar advertising campaign was one of the most successful in history due in no small part to Leyendecker's illustrations. Obvious, he got a wad of cash out of it, and his lifestyle as a highly-paid illustrator was the epitome of what we think of when we hear the phrase 'Roaring Twenties'. After 1929, though (GREAT DEPRESSION TEE HEE) the amount of work he received began to steadily declined, and he and his partner were forced to sharply curtail their lavish spending habits. As Leyendecker's wealth dwindled, so did his social activity. Towards the end of his life he was pretty much a hermit.