Tuesday Art ATTACK- Joyce Ballantyne “Pin-Up with Monkey”

American illustration artist Joyce Ballantyne was born in Norfolk, Nebraska on April 4, 1918. Ballantye loved drawing as a child and would always enter art contests. During the depression to make money she would make and sell paper dolls. Ballantyne decided to pursue a career as a commercial artist and received her arts education at the American Academy of Art in Chicago. After college Ballantyne got work at the firms Kling Studios and Stevens-Gross Studio painting maps for Rand McNally and drawing pictures for dictionary's. Her big break came during WW2 when there was a shortage of male artists and her old college professor, famous pin-up artist Gil Elvgren, got her a job doing Pin-ups. She became well-known for this work and got a lot of commercial commissions. Ballantyne will be forever known for her most famous commission she created in 1959, the Coppertone Girl. As her career progressed Ballentyne decided to also focus on doing portraits. Ballantyne worked until her death in 2006.