Coloring Book Covers 3
Added 2023-05-19 17:49:26 +0000 UTCMagilla Gorilla is credited to Ellis Ellenberger (who I'm not familar with but probably did the drawing) and Bill Lorencz who painted the cover. Lorencz' unique painting style is very smooth and shiny. He did a really appealing Beany and Cecil Golden book that I may show you if I can find it under my huge piles of boxes.
I like this Bugs painting but it isn't credited inside the book so I'm not sure who painted it.
This beautiful Disney cover was painted by Joe Rinaldi. It's a bit more elaborate than most of the coloring books from the 50s and 60s.
The Boo Boo cover art is an interesting collage of a photographed tree and painted characters. I don't know who the artist is.
I'm impressed by the skill and appeal old children's book art has. The bold and seemingly simple graphics were designed to catch your eye even from a distance. I've been really inspired by this general approach to painting cartoon characters and I hope you will be too.
They stopped doing these painted covers sometime in the 70s and I've never figured out why.
