"Anthropomorphic," Anyone?

All dressed animal art, also known as animal character art, is "anthropomorphic." This big word actually has quite a simple meaning: "the attribution of human motivation, characteristics, or behavior to inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena. The term derives from the combination of the Greek words ánthropos (human) and morphe, (shape or form)."

This illustration - "The Interrupted  Feast" by Racey Helps - is a perfect example. As badger cooks up little campfire meal of sausage links, the smoke and flames from the fire bring the local Fire Department (comprised entirely of bunnies) running! It's humorous, colorful, sweet, and fun, and a great example of mid-20th century anthropomorphic, or dressed animal, art.

If you'd like to see my own anthropomorphic art, Whimbletails™, please click here. 

To visit my online store featuring a large variety of great products, gifts, and collectibles featuring all my whimsical animal illustrations, please go to Adele's Cute Animal Art Shop.

Puttin' on the Dog: Cassius Marcellus Coolidge and Arthur Sarnoff

Here are two illustrators who excelled at what is known as "dressed animal" art. They both specialized in dogs who are participating in human activites, primarily pool, cards, and, in the case of Sarnoff, golf. I've shown them together due to their strong similarities. (Sarnoff was directly inspired by Coolidge.) Remarkable for their detail and humor, prints by both artists remain extremely popular even today. The top two paintings are by Coolidge; the bottom is by Sarnoff. Here's a little more about each artist.

Cassius Marcellus Coolidge (1844-1934) was an American artist known primarily for his Dogs Playing Poker paintings and inventing the concept of life-size cutouts into which one's head is placed to create funny character photographs. While he had no formal training as an artist, his natural talent for drawing led him to create cartoons for his local newspaper during his twenties. In 1900, Coolidge contracted with the advertising firm of Brown & Bigelow of St. Paul, Minnesota to create sixteen oil paintings of dogs in various human poses, nine of which depict dogs playing poker. They quickly became a national success and finally earned him, at late mid-life, fame and fortune.
His anthropomorphised dog paintings have inspired not only American illustrator Arthur Sarnoff, who became famous for his Dogs Playing Pool series of paintings, but also hundreds of other imitators.
In 2005, two of his paintings, "A Bold Bluff" and "Waterloo", sold at auction for $590,400, a record for Coolidge, whose previous top sale was $74,000.

Arthur Sarnoff (1912 - 2000) was an American artist who studied at the Industrial School and the Grand Central School of Art in New York City. He was a student of John Clymer and Andrew Wyeth. Sarnoff was a member of the Society of Illustrators and exhibited widely including at the National Academy of Design. While he did extensive commercial work for weekly magazines and his art appeared in a variety of advertising campaigns, he became equally known for his pool playing, card playing, and golfing dogs. Although his best known work is a painting of dogs playing pocket billiards entitled "Jack the Ripper", another called "The Hustler" was the best-selling print of the 1950s.

To visit my online store featuring a large variety of great products, gifts, and collectibles featuring my own whimsical animal illustrations, please go to Adele's Cute Animal Art Shop.

Tweet, Tweet! A VERY Cute Baby Bird Sculpture

Animal art doesn't have to be just paintings or illustrations! It can also include other forms of expression like this wonderfully creative bird's nest clay sculpture by the very talented 10-year-old, Dominique Reano of Santo Domingo and Cochiti Pueblos, New Mexico. Can you see why she won both a Youth Pottery Award and the Youth Smile Award at this year's Indian Market in Santa Fe? Birdie even seems to have a piece of shell stuck upon his little head. Cute, cute, cute!

To visit my online store featuring a large variety of great products, gifts, and collectibles featuring my own whimsical animal art, please go to Adele's Cute Animal Art Shop.

The Alfred Mainzer Company and the Dressed Animal Art of Eugen Hartung, a Critical Analysis

From the 1940s through the 1960s, the Alfred Mainzer Company of Long Island City, NY published a series of linen and photochrome humorous cat postcards illustrated by Eugen Hartung (or Hurtong) (1897-1973), sometimes referred to as "Mainzer Cats". These postcards normally illustrate settings that are filled with action, often with a minor disaster just about to occur. While the dressed cats were by far the most popular and most plentiful cards, Hartung also painted other dressed animals - primarily mice, dogs, and hedgehogs. The cards of this series were first printed in a continuous tone by Max Kunzli of Switzerland. Typically, the Kunzli cats are featured in European settings and the cards are not as brightly colored as the American editions. Later cards were printed in halftone lithography in a variety of countries, including Belgium, Turkey, Thailand, and Spain. Alfred Mainzer, Inc., still exists, and recently published a new collectors' set of 126 dressed-animal postcards which includes 118 dressed cats, 7 dressed dogs, and 1 dressed mice postcards.

My own feelings about the dressed cat paintings of Eugen Hartung? Sorry to say, definitely mixed. On the one hand, they are beautifully composed and skillfully executed. He obviously possessed a massive amount of artistic talent. Great time and care were taken with every painting - the detail is a sheer delight, and is the thing most quoted as a favorite characteristic of Hartung's dressed cat paintings. And perhaps their best feature is their action, humour, and suspense - every painting without exception tells a story, which is key in creating a successful work of art. They are without a doubt a joy to behold. On the other hand, however, I can't look at his work without seeing paintings of PEOPLE. Being an artist myself, I sense he often worked from photos of people individually and/or in groups in action poses, and simply substituted cat heads for human heads. I think their human-style bodies are far too literal and an unsettling  - even unnerving - contrast to their animal heads. Unlike Hartung, most other "dressed animal" artists will keep the NATURAL SHAPE OF THE ANIMAL. A mole by Beatrix Potter may be wearing a vest and spats, but he will still be shaped like a mole. The effect is more believable (if a dressed animal can be believable!), more charming in its naturalness, and considerably less disconcerting than a body with human proportions and an animal's head. Quite honestly, Hartung's dressed cats kinda creep me out! I've posted two cards in which this seems, to me, to be especially evident. What do you think?

Would you like to see my own whimsical animal art? Please visit my online store, Adele's Cute Animal Art Shop, featuring a large variety of great products, gifts, and collectibles featuring my own cute animal illustrations.

Flickr Group "Animals in Your Art"

Did you know that there's a Flickr group with more than 2600 members and 39,000 photos of artwork called "Animals in Your Art"? If you love animals or animal art, click here to see a huge variety of illustrations, photographs, paintings, and more, ranging from ultra-realism to fun cartoons, of all sorts of animals. I have a few of my own illustrations posted - here's just one, called "The Explorer's Club":

To visit my online store featuring a large variety of great products, gifts, and collectibles featuring my own whimsical animal art, please go to Adele's Cute Animal Art Shop.

George Leonard Carlson 1887-1962

While George Carlson is perhaps best known for his work with the Jingle Jangle comic books, he had a long career illustrating children's books and authoring numerous guides to the art of cartooning.
He appears to have begun his career about 1916, but it was during the 1920s that his work became widely known, with illustrations for "Jane and the Owl," "Adventures of Jane," "The Adventures of Toby Spaniel," and others children's books. In 1933, he authored "Draw Comics - Here's How!," a book of instructions, tips, and techniques for cartooning, followed by at least two other guides to the art of drawing comics. In 1936, he illustrated the dust jacket for the first edition of Gone With the Wind. A million copies of Margaret Mitchell's book were printed and sold, and Carlson's reputation as an illustrator was made. In 1939, he was recruited by children's publisher Platt & Munk to illustrate Howard Garis' classic series of Uncle Wiggily stories, of which he did at least a dozen. He continued this association Platt & Munk for years, illustrating numerous "Pastime Fun Books" - Fun-Time Games, Puzzles, Stunts, Drawings, Riddles, Mazes, and other pictorial challenges. During the 1940's and 50's, he continued to produce works along the same lines - guides to drawing, comics, and more Fun books. Carlson died in 1962.

The illustrations above appear in "Uncle Wiggly and His Friends", originally published in 1939 by Platt & Monk. (How cute is that elephant?!?)

To visit my online store featuring a large variety of great products, gifts, and collectibles featuring my own whimsical animal art, please go to Adele's Cute Animal Art Shop.

A Short History of the Medici Society

The Medici Society, located in London, England, was founded in 1908 by Philip Lee Warner and Eustace Gurney. The company's original aim was "to bring artists' work to the appreciation of a wider public", and subjects were chosen for their "artistic value, beauty, or sentiment, and were sold for the lowest price commercially possible." In keeping with this mission, the artwork was originally reproduced as high-quality postcards. Medici began publishing greeting cards in the 1930s, and some of the artists whose work was published in those days are still in print today. Some of their artists included Molly Brett, Racey Helps, Margaret  and Audrey Tarrant, Noel Hopkin, Rene Cloke, and Margaret Tempest. Currently, the company has diversified into other publications, including stationery, calendars, seasonal cards for Christmas and Easter, reproduction prints, and children's books, with a focus upon dressed animals, fairies, and other subjects of wide appeal. To see more, go to: http://www.medici.co.uk

Pictured above is "Bonfire Night" by Molly Brett

To visit my online store featuring a large variety of great products, gifts, and collectibles featuring my own whimsical animal art, please go to Adele's Cute Animal Art Shop.

Picture of the Day - (Angus Clifford) Racey Helps

A prolific artist and author of more than two dozen children's books, Racey Helps was also one of the Medici Society's most popular postcard artists. Like Beatrix Potter, Helps began his career by illustrating his own stories and mailing them off to a child - in this case, his own daughter, living away from home in the safer countryside during WWII. Help's work was discovered by a publisher while he worked as a hairdresser with his wife. Although he died in 1971, his descendants in Great Britain maintain a fabulous website devoted to Helps and his work, with an extensive biography, bibliography, and a ton of gorgeous reproductions of his illustrations. The URL is: http://www.raceyhelps.co.uk  Enjoy!

I've chosen this work called "The Astonished Angler" not only because it's a prime example of cute or dressed animal art, but from an artistic point of view, it's a smashing success - beautifully composed, with flowing lines all circling about the central point of action; employs a very effective color scheme, using primarily the three analogous colors of blue, green, and yellow; has accurate yet simplified botanical detail; and provides a smile just viewing it. What more could a picture offer?

Would you like to see my own whimsical animal art? Please visit my online store, Adele's Cute Animal Art Shop, featuring a large variety of great products, gifts, and collectibles featuring my own cute animal illustrations.

Lang Campbell - "Comic" style animal character art

There's two camps, or distinct styles, in animal character illustration. This first is naturalistic, like Beatrix Potter's. You may be aware that her first artistic efforts were in scientific illustration - her renderings of mushrooms, bugs, flowers, etc. are superb. When she began to illustrate her books, she never compromised her facility for naturalism. A frog may have been wearing a waistcoat, but he always remained an anatomically correct frog!

The second style is comic - usually line drawings, with flat colors; and exagerrated features with limited regard for anatomical accuracy. One of my favorite "comic" cute animal illustrators is Lang (Lansing) Campbell. I can't even look at his "Dinky Ducklings" without laughing! Are those guys too goofy or what? Here's two examples:

 

Lansing “Lang” Campbell was a 20th c. American illustrator and cartoonist best known for illustrating the Howard Garis cartoon series "Uncle Wiggily’s Adventures" (started 1910), later to become the basis for several dozen books featuring the beloved character. During the 1930's, Campbell also created a few strips and books of his own, including "Piggy Pigtail", "Paddy the Pup", "Dippy Doodlebug", "Bizzy Izzy Humbug", "The Dinky Ducklings", "Duck and Applesauce", "Dicky Bird’s Diary," "Merry Murphy" and more. After an active career in New York City, he retired to Boothbay Harbor, ME about 1950, where he spent the rest of his life. Exact dates of birth and death unkown.

My own animal character art? A cross between the two. A good deal of naturalism, especially in the botanical areas of the painting, but a bit of artistic license when it comes to rendering the animals - especially insects! I try not to stray too far...but they persist in coming out cute! See my painting "Best Buddies" below (take a close look at Fat Mr. Bee!)

To visit my online store featuring a large variety of great products, gifts, and collectibles featuring all my  whimsical animal art, please go to Adele's Cute Animal Art Shop.

Clara Atwood Fitts

Since I'm always scouting around for examples of cute animal illustrations, I was really excited to come across an old 1927 book at my local thrift store called "Pine Tree Playmates." A beginner reader, it was written by children's author Mary Francis Blaisdell and illustrated by an artist I'd never heard of, Clara Atwood Fitts.  What fun to find someone new! Since the illustrations were so beautifully done - by someone who was obviously well-practiced in animal character illustration - I tried to find out more about her. There's not much. She was born in Worcester, MA in 1874, attended the Boston Museum School, was a member of the  prestigious Copley Society, and lived and worked primarily in NH. A quick search of Amazon Books shows  considerable artistic versatility, with children's, religious, and classics to her credit. Her date of death is unknown. Above are a few examples of her work. They are extremely charming, beautifully drawn, well composed, and cute, cute, cute! Don't you agree?

Would you like to see my own whimsical animal art? Please visit my online store, Adele's Cute Animal Art Shop, featuring a large variety of great products, gifts, and collectibles featuring my own cute animal illustrations.