René Gruau

 

There's this artist I've been loving lately. I discovered him on Pinterest. His name is René Gruau. 

I always loved fashion illustrations and I think he has the most unique and pleasant style ever. I love the bold black outlines, and poses. 

Most of these illustrations are probably from the 50s, they look handsome yet very cool and inspiring. 

It's extremely pleasent for the use of the two-tone color palette. It has simple design but you can immediately sense the details and the actual color schemes are impressive.

This one's a smart move. Well-drawn posture but most importantly the hat hanging on the letter C of the vintage Club logo. 

Alot of this reminds me of what I particularly like about the 1950s, it's load of high fashion and "beatnik" without being too off-putting like Funny Face (1957).  

Great Vintage Stuff 2

 

I was a little proud for making the first post last month, so here's a sequel. Enjoy these pictures, they represent warmth and passion also a little inspiration. 

Here's a rare Japanese theatre release poster of Guys and Dolls (1955) this is so unusual but pleasurable. I kinda like the abstract dot patterns. 

Here's some outstanding Song of The South artwork from record covers. 

I miss this era of Disney. Imagine if Walt Disney Records would've continued making records in a style like this with their Renaissance and modern movies. Unfortunately that died out, but I do believe that Disney is still trying at least when it comes to their animation studio.

I'm a fan of the old Collier's magazines, particularly the ones illustrated by Vernon Grant, but here's one of my favorites so far designed by Wilson Cutler. Love the woman's facial expression.

Now here's some fun stuff. A Disneyland coloring book from 1955. This is too good! I could look at this all day, don't entirely know who designed it, but they sure know how to impress viewers.

J.C Leyendecker still continues to be one of my all-time favorite artists. His art is just so fresh and creative. I also admire the casual fashion, they don't directly advise stuff like this anymore. 

To me, it just isn't the same. The magic is quite gone. The magazines I'm seeing are actual real photographs, it's fine but not exactly what I prefer to invest.

Richard Scarry's Golden Book era is my favorite, his design of Smokey The Bear is literally the cutest I ever seen. I discussed about his other art before in previous posts click this link if you have the chance. 

https://sngexplorationblog.blogspot.com/2025/07/richard-scarrys-i-am-bunny.html?m=1

I have alot to say about this. I love the color scheme, just like with the Disneyland cover, I appreciate the coloring books where the cover art has a train, they are really difficult to draw, this is very cute. Illustrated by Pete Hawley, he's probably a new favorite of mine.

Finally, I bring you some autumn art, this is a 1946 The New Yorker magazine cover that I really like. The color scheme is perfection, it's naturally accurate to the actual palettes to the fall season. Those trees remind me of the backgrounds from Disney's Legend Of Sleepy Hollow. 

Part 1

https://sngexplorationblog.blogspot.com/2025/09/great-vintage-stuff.html?m=1

Country Gentleman Magazines

 

Just like with Saturday Evening Post, these were a series of magazines alot of people seem to like. 

They aren't as much of a household name as their other magazine, but I still really like it.

They have alot of entertaining artwork in these issues. Just like with Saturday Evening Post, they sometimes make animal artwork or funny artwork.

It's like if I was watching a cartoon in the theatre back in 40s, every week there would be a Looney Tunes and MGM one. 

The best ones are the covers starring Cousin Reginald. 

These characters are just fun to look at. When you experience them, they feel memorable, especially with the limited colors they had back then.

It's kinda disappointing that our latest generation doesn't have these type of colors, and simplicity anymore. I grew up with stuff like this and I try to not forget about it.

If any of you guys out there are looking for something entertaining and you want to be in a good place, I suggest you to look at nature videos, or interesting artwork to peak your interest. 

I watched this show lately called Antique's Road Show and it's really interesting since it showcases something unique and exicting. It may not be the most fast-paced, comedic show of all time, but it's definitely what I describe what's best with our world of today. Watching AI videos and gore will not help ya. 

The environment and living over 70 years ago, felt more calmer and warm. 

Even when at times these magazines don't go too hard with the artwork, it still looks appealing.

It's also really cool to see what people were like and what they did back in the 1920s. You may never knew that kids back then were charming troublemakers. 

And yes, those dumb theoretical professors can get a life, because color has been a thing since the universe was born and so does the artists themselves!

If your looking to know how to draw humans similar to this, then this is your time. 

This series need more recognition. 

Saturday Evening Post - The Finest Of Magazines

Here's a really fun interest of mine. The Saturday Evening Post covers. 

These were fantastic. I love almost every illustration. It's got extreme amount of detail, and it can have extremely good amount of vibrant and pleasing colors at times. The fact that these were made literally a century ago is just hard to imagine. 

They can be beautiful

And can also be really funny.

The illustrations at the start of the first few years were good but kinda basic. It relied on using limited colors and the expressions were not always fun to look at. 

Go further 15-20 years later, the illustrations were massive and mind-blown at their time. This was fresh back in 1919.

Most of these were drawn by legend, Norman Rockwell. He makes alot of great art and I would highly recommend looking at his work. 

Besides his work with the Saturday Evening Post, he also worked on other magazines. This one particular is gorgeous! 

By far my favorite type of covers the Saturday Evening Post publishes are the ones featuring a house in a neighborhood. These were mostly made in the late 40s to 50s and by then the covers looked alot better than ever. I love these!

This one too!

The last cover of the Saturday Evening Post was in February of 1969. This is what it looks like. I can see it gotten through a downfall, but to me at least it has ton of appeal. It looks good.

I have a Saturday Evening Post book which has all of the covers. I got it on my birthday this year and I love it so much. This book will be forever a treasure.

It's good to have different interests. You may think I'm a classic animation lover 24/7, but sometimes I'm not. I love other stuff and magazines like this are a huge example.