In the last half century or so pink has increasingly become femme coded. This wasn’t the case before the second world war.
If an illustrator utilises a predominantly pink palette today, does this mean the work will therefore look as if the target market is ‘girls’?
Below find a selection of illustrations with a hugely varied mood and genre. Pink can be soft, harsh, romantic, and everything in between.
Mead Schaeffer (1898 – 1980)Cinema poster for the film L’Atlantide, 1921 by Manuel OraziPrelude – The early life of Eileen Joyce C.H. Abrahall, illustrated by Anna Zinkeisen. Published by Oxford University Press 1950Bob Peak (1927-1992) 1964 film poster illustration for My Fair LadyFATHER George, Paris 1887-1971From Povidky Malostranskè by Jan Neruda 1877-drawings Josefa Wenigaものぐさトミー 1977Magic Secrets by Rose Wyler & Gerald Ames, illustrated by Tālivaldis Stubis (1967)The king who could not sleep illustrated by Victoria Chess 1973The king who could not sleep illustrated by Victoria Chess 1973Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de laclosfrom Veronica goes to Petrunia’s Farm written and illustrated by Roger Duvoisin, 1962from Paddle-to-the-Sea, written and illustrated by Holling Clancy Holling (Houghton Mifflin, 1941)The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O’Connorえどのあねさま 1975
PINK AND BLUE
M. Mayofis – Tales of the Brothers Grimm Doctor Know-it-all7月12日 (July 12th)by Shuhei Hasegawa 1981ACHTER DE BERGEN (1979) Lilo FrommAlfred Buell (1910–1996)English Villages And Hamlets, Humphrey Pakington, Cover By Brian Cook, Ill. Sydney R. Jones (B. T. Batsford Ltd, London 1934, this edition 1941) coverPierre Commarmond (1897–1983) 1929 travel poster illustration for Rocamadour, a small clifftop village in south-central FranceElegant Modes 1922 Georges Lepape (1887-1971)Gustav-Adolf Mossa (1883 – 1971) David and Bathsheba, 1906Animation backgrounds from Disney’s 101 Dalmatians, 1961‘Gulliver’s Travels’ illustration by Frank Schoonover (1921)Menu Chat Noir George Auriol, c. 1899P.D. Eastman (Snow, illustrated by Roy McKie, 1962)Cover design and illustration by Politzer, 1932 I Still Believe In YouBob PeakEarly London and South Western Railway posterCover design and illustration by Albert Wilfred Barbelle, 1928Nikolay Ustinov from the life story of the Russian journalist & naturalist, Mikhail PrishvinUntitled Landscape (1977) Abstract landscape by Cincinnati painter Jack Meanwell (1919-2005)MICHAEL LEONARD – Woman’s Journal – 1962 Source- Lifestyle illustration of the 50’sAntonio Lopez fashion designs for unknown publication, possible the cover, 1967Bob Peak My Fair Lady movie poster 1964Jaroslav Šetelík (Czech , 1881 – 1955) View from the Seminary Gardens, 1908
PINK AND YELLOW
Pinks with yellows and ochres can soften the pink.
Brian Wildsmith Mommies by Lonnie C. Carton, illustrated by Leslie Jacobs (1960)1952 September, cover by Alvin Lustig collageHelios drove across the sky, From ‘Childcraft Vol 6’. First published in 1964Illustration by Adrienne Adams in ‘Childcraft The How and Why Library’ Volume 5, Field Enterprises, first printed 1964Postcard by Nanni Sirio, circa 1915Andrew Loomis (1892-1959) – Letter to SantaGus Was a Friendly Ghost by Jane Thayer illustrated by Seymour Fleishman (1961)Rudolf Wacker (1893 – 1939) Old Houses in Lindau, 1928by H. A. Rey for Pretzel by Margaret Rey (1944)Nicoletta Ceccoli – The Princess and the White Bear KingFrom Moominvalley in November (1970) Tove JanssonLiberty, March 30, 1940. Art by Hubbell Reed McBrideDE ONTEVREDEN VIS (1962) Cornelius van VelsenDeutsche Landschaft HAP (Helmut Andreas Paul) Grieshaber,1953, large format woodcutby Ilonka Karasz (1896-1981) The New Yorker cover April 25, 1953The Wonderful Dragon of Timlin written & illustrated by Tomie dePaola (1966)Rushing In, Ernest Chiriaka (1913-2010) gouacheEvaline Ness, Favourite Fairy Tales Told In Italy 1965Georges Antoine Rochegrosse 1901
Saoirse doesn’t believe in love at first sight or happy endings. If they were real, her mother would still be able to remember her name and not in a care home with early onset dementia. A condition that Saoirse may one day turn out to have inherited. So she’s not looking for a relationship. She doesn’t see the point in igniting any romantic sparks if she’s bound to burn out.
But after a chance encounter at an end-of-term house party, Saoirse is about to break her own rules. For a girl with one blue freckle, an irresistible sense of mischief, and a passion for rom-coms.
Unbothered by Saoirse’s no-relationships rulebook, Ruby proposes a loophole: They don’t need true love to have one summer of fun, complete with every cliché, rom-com montage-worthy date they can dream up—and a binding agreement to end their romance come fall. It would be the perfect plan, if they weren’t forgetting one thing about the Falling in Love Montage: when it’s over, the characters actually fall in love… for real.
Addams family set from the old black and white show
CONTEMPORARY FICTION SET IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND (2023)
On paper, things look fine. Sam Dennon recently inherited significant wealth from his uncle. As a respected architect, Sam spends his days thinking about the family needs and rich lives of his clients. But privately? Even his enduring love of amateur astronomy is on the wane. Sam has built a sustainable-architecture display home for himself but hasn’t yet moved into it, preferring to sleep in his cocoon of a campervan. Although they never announced it publicly, Sam’s wife and business partner ended their marriage years ago due to lack of intimacy, leaving Sam with the sense he is irreparably broken.
Now his beloved uncle has died. An intensifying fear manifests as health anxiety, with night terrors from a half-remembered early childhood event. To assuage the loneliness, Sam embarks on a Personal Happiness Project:
