Vintage american art

How did artists like Norman Rockwell, Austin Briggs, Jon Whitcomb, and others create the believable unique faces that can tell a whole story by themselves? In a magazine cover, like those by Rockwell and Stevan Dohanos, the image, with its setting and, most of all, its characters, must convey an anecdote without any help from words. So each face must be carefully crafted to do its part in creating the drama⸺or comedy.

American Gothic is considered one of the most recognizable paintings in history, but few people know the profession of the stern looking guy posing with the pitchfork.

Walter Martin Baumhofer (American, 1904-1987) Riddler or to Love Again, probable magazine interior illustration, - Available at 2017 October 13 Illustration...

USA, Illustrator

“Joseph Christian Leyendecker (March 23, 1874 – July 25, 1951) was a German-American illustrator.”

From July 1914 issue of John Martin's Book, a Magazine for Little Children, by John Martin's House.