Memoirs: Earl MacPherson: King of Pin Up Art - Paperback

by Merylene Schneider (Author), Earl MacPherson (Illustrator), Earl MacPherson (Author)

Many commercial artists have had a fling at pin up art but only a handful have become stars. Earl MacPherson was one of them. His "Sketch Book" series earned him wide acclaim and his fans dubbed him as the "King of Pin Up Artists." His illustrative paintings and glamor art style adorned books and calendars throughout the 30s and 40s. Memoirs offers a look at the man the legend he became with photo studies of his models and the art that was inspired by them from that memorable era.

Author Biography

Earl MacPherson is known for the creation of the "Artist Sketch Pad" style of pinup art and was one of the leading pin up artists during the heyday of the pinup art style. He was born in Oklahoma in 1910 and his family later moved to Los Angeles. Earl studied at the Chouinard School of Art in LA but moved to Hawaii before finishing his studies. After a few years, he moved back stateside and by the late 30s was working in Hollywood, painting portraits of the Earl Carroll Girls. He was hired by Brown and Bigelow and moved to Minnesota to join the largest calendar company in the world. It was there that Earl created the "Artists Sketch Pad" which became a huge hit. Earl was later hired away by Shaw-Burton where he produced an 11 year run on "The MacPherson Sketchbook" calendar. In 1951, MacPherson developed polio which restricted his artwork for awhile. Over time, he managed to deal with his limitations and spun off into architecture, even hosting a TV show on home building in Arizona. When the pin up market dried up, Earl worked a variety of art jobs and then moved to Tahiti. He died in 1993.