Pin-Up Artist Profile: Roy Best

Roy Best

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Roy Best was an American illustrator and painter of pin-up art.

He was born in Waverly, Ohio and attended the Art Institute of Cincinnati, working on a railroad construction crew to support himself. He later moved to Chicago, Illinois, and enrolled in the Art Institute there.

Later, Best was represented in New York by American Artists. During this time he painted several covers for The Saturday Evening Post. By 1931, Best was painting pin-ups for the Joseph C. Hoover & Sons calendar company. That same year, he was commissioned by the Whitman Publishing Company to illustrate The Peter Pan Picture Book, based on J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan; an illustration from this project was the basis for the Peter Pan Bus Lines logo.

In 1942, Best was hired by Brown and Bigelow leading to a career producing calendar pin-ups.