Wednesday, July 20, 2011

A friend from the heyday of automotive illustration

Yesterday an old friend from fifty years ago, Bob Pearson, visited me. Bob is an award winning automotive artist who learned his craft in the commercial art studios of Detroit during the years when the ad business was booming there. He started out as an apprentice for me and a small group of artists, which included top notch automotive illustrators such as Dave Lindsay, Ted Lodigensky, Jack Mills, Ted Paul, Jim Jackson and Del Nichols. He also worked for other Detroit studios and even became an art director at Campbell Ewald Advertising. Bob later moved to Toronto, Canada and worked for several ad agencies there as an art director. Now retired from the ad business, Bob has returned to his first passion, illustrating cars. If you would like a wonderful portrait of your favorite classic car, give him a call at 416.484.8180. Below are a few examples of Bob's great work.

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The two cars below were painted for me when I was the art director of Ward's Quarterly magazine in 1965.

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3 comments:

Bill Stanley said...

Any idea whether Bob Pearson ever did any illustrations of Corvairs while he was at Campbell-Ewald?

Anonymous said...

Hi Harry, My Dad was Jack Mills and I believe he worked for you back in the car illustrating days of the 50's-60's. As a kid, I remember my Mom and Dad speaking of you fondly. I am starting to go through my Dad's collection and I came across your name. I would love to chat with you to fill in the gaps of that period (I was born 1970) of my Dad's life!

Bill Stanley said...

I recently acquired a copy of the Art Directors Club of Detroit Fifteenth Advertising Awards Annual wherein Jack Mills, together with Del Nichols, shares credit as artist for a full-line Chevy Super Sport ad for model year 1963.