He studied art at Noble and Greenough Preparatory School, and later attended Vesper-George Art Academy. Following school, he gravitated towards the film industry in California, and as he was a handsome young man, he landed some small roles as an actor, including a part in Alice Adams with Katherine Hepburn (RKO Pictures, 1935.)
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, he worked for Warner Brothers as a production-design and publicity artist making compositional set designs. He worked alongside another ambitious young artist, Joe DeMers, and they began to collaborate, often producing different parts of the same drawing. In the summer of 1946, Esquire announced an important new feature entitled the “Esquire Gallery of Glamour,” and the magazine selected Willis and DeMers to supply the inaugural illustration, to which both signed their names. A number of newspapers reported on this unique working arrangement in 1951:
Who actually creates the fabulous Esquire Calendar Girls?
In reality, they are created by both the artists who draw and paint them—and by the general public which each year expresses itself, both by purchase and by market surveys, as to the best, and the worst, approximation of their ideal American woman…
Joe De Mers and Fritz Willis worked on the Esquire Girls as a team. Each of them, by himself, could draw a honey of a girl at the drop of a shoulder strap. But, instead, they worked closely together. Joe sketching the left eyelid, Fritz the blue in the white eyeball, Joe the left toe, and Fritz the fourth one.
Or, they might each work on a complete section. DeMers himself explained one cooperative effort:
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7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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THE ART OF PAUL BRANSOM
Paul Bransom (1885-1979) was widely known as the Dean of American Animal Artists. His work appeared on the covers of magazines like The Saturday Evening Post and served as illustrations of short stories in periodicals and in books. He provided the illustrations for some 45 books, most notably the 1912 edition of Jack London’s Call of the Wild and the 1913 edition of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows.
THE ART OF FRANK MCCARTHY
Witnessing a Wild West show as a young boy was a crucial early influence that led Frank McCarthy to become a distinguished painter of Western historical themes. The excitement and emotion he felt that day stayed with him, and can be seen in the vivid action, color, and splendor that emanate from his paintings.
THE ART OF WARD BRACKETT
Ward Brackett (April 2, 1914–December 14, 2006) was a gifted American illustrator, known for his work in paperback books and periodicals such as Reader’s Digest and Cosmopolitan.
THE ART OF N.C. WYETH
For over 25 years, N.C. Wyeth was regarded as the foremost illustrator of books and magazines in the United States. His artwork for iconic tales of romance and adventure has become synonymous with the stories themselves, familiar to multiple generations of readers. Some of the best-known characters in literature have become nearly indistinguishable from the images he produced.
THE ART OF CHARLES LASALLE
\"We have some artists in the family.\" I didn't know it at the time, but my future father-in-law Aiden E. LaSalle was a master of understatement.
THE ART OF PRUETT CARTER
Pruett Carter was once recognized as one of America's top illustrators, during a time when illustrations were viewed primarily as easel paintings
THE ART OF RAYMOND JOHNSON
Raymond Sven (Ray) Johnson was a commercial illustrator who created iconic paperback book covers spanning all genres of fiction for Avon, Popular Library, Monarch and other publishers from the late 1940s through the early 1960s.
"Blow some my way"
THE DELINEATION OF DESIRE IN 1920s COMMERCIAL ILLUSTRATION
THE ART OF FRITZ WILLIS
Fritz Willis was born in Oklahoma in 1907, and raised in Boston.
THE ART OF WILLIAM OBERHARDT
Illustrator William Oberhardt (1882-1958) was born in Guttenberg, New Jersey, 1882.
