NORMAN SAUNDERS TRIBUTE

Periodically the Illostribute page pays tributes to great masters of art. This month the website decided to pay a tribute to the great and hilarious Norman Saunders . He was a prolific commercial artist who produced paintings for pulp magazines, paperbacks, men's adventure magazines, comic books, and trading cards. To see the other great Norman Saunder tribute art pieces check out the Illostribute website.  Personally, I love how appealing are his women drawings and how edgy his paintings are even though they tend to be really broad and slapstick sometimes. I love how intense the characters look in his paintings and how there's always something going on in their heads while the situations are happening. For instance, there always something implicit of what will happen next and I think that's a great way to tell a story through an image.

Below you can see some samples of Saunders magazine covers. I was mostly influenced by these pieces while working on my tribute pieces.

This is a satire piece with the atrocious Adolf Hitler. I thought he would be an interesting contrast to play with the slapstick humor of these magazines.

Hitler's new secret:  Female buttocks branding.

I love the 1962 Mars Attacks trading cards that Norman Saunders helped illustrate. They are hilarious and so appealing. I had a blast painting this piece.

Though Sci-Fi Man

WONDER WOMAN

HAWAII EXPERIENCE

A few days ago I went with my girlfriend Lindsey to Hawaii. One of the experiences that stood out the most for me was our Hanauma Bay Park experience. At this beautiful place one could snorkel and enjoy a rich marine life like nowhere. It was my first time snorkeling so I was pretty excited but a little bit scared since I had never had a first degree encounter with a marine life. I was feeling safe though since Lindsey is Hawaiian and she knew the Bay pretty well.

The image below was the first thing I spotted when I arrived in the bay. Tones of people clustered together in the ocean! I thought they were all dead but Lindsey then explained to me they were actually just floating over the water. That sight was enough to make me a little uncomfortable with the snorkeling activity.


We were warned by the life guards that we had to know our equipment pretty well before started snorkeling otherwise it could be dangerous. We practiced for a while but I still wasn't feeling fully confident about snorkeling.


Lindsey on the other hand thought I was ready to go.



I had no choice but to follow her.



It was all foggy and I could see no marine life whatsoever. The only sound I could hear was the ominous sound of my respiration through the snorkel. There were sand on my fins and they were hurting my feet!! I was so scared I grabbed Lindsey's hand and squeezed it with all my strength.


Lindsey started pointing to my right. There was a family of exotic yellow little fish in front of us. They were adorable. It was so exciting!! I smiled and started feeling more relaxed.



I looked around and realized we were surrounded by those magnificent creatures. I finally started enjoying our snorkeling adventure.
Suddenly, a strange red fish reveled his face from a hole. It seemed as if it was kind of smiling.



The strange and huge fish kept coming closer and closer. The closer he got the bigger was it's smile. Lindsey kept pointing at the fish in excitement. She actually thought I was excited too since I was so agitated. Little she knew how much I was actually panicking.




The fish not only got closer to me but it scrubbed his scaled back in my belly. What a weird feeling!!! That was too much for a first encounter with a marine creature like that. I freaked out under the water and ended up drinking almost 2 gallons of salt water. Luckily the fish didn't harmed me but I will never forget his strange smile.


Lindsey believes the creature just wanted to welcome me. Aloha to you big fish but next time you don't have to be so nice.

Random sketches

Family





Argument