EXTRACTS: illustrators issue 2 © 2012 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition))

7 the paintings of Buicks and Supermarine Spitfires, he pointed out to the young artist that, as the nation was now at war, the last thing that people wanted to look at were illustrations of aircraft. In Wall’s estimation what people craved was a little light relief and perhaps it might therefore be an idea if Wright would care to go away and produce some more samples like these. The “these” that Wall was indicating were the few samples that Wright had brought along featuring his tantalizingly coquettish women. The decision to concentrate his energies on painting fabulous looking women as opposed to fabulous looking aircraft was what brought Wright his first flush of fame and commercial success. The war, however, presented both opportunities and impediments to his career.The opportunities were created by a boost to the art of the pin up as the nation’s newspaper and periodical publishers sought to bring some degree of succor to the unrequited longings of young men posted miles away from female comforts. The market that the Walls had predicted with such prescience, provided David Wright with a never ending stream of commissions, with the glossy magazine, The Sketch, providing him with a succession of centre page pin up pull-outs destined to adorn many a barracks and Nissen hut wall. Wright’s art entered a new phase as with increasing confidence he refined his painting technique, abandoning entirely his use of a keyline on which to anchor his imagery and instead concentrating on mastering his handling of light to create both form and atmosphere, skills which would inform and guide his work for the rest of his career. The impediment to that career was, of course, the war itself and the fact that, like the rest of his contemporaries, Wright found himself doing his bit for King and Country. In Wright’s case this saw him volunteering for service in the RAF. His lack of what the services considered “a formal education” saw him enlisting in the Army instead. His duties were divided between applying his graphic skills to the information room, whilst his passion for cars entailed the remainder of his time being assigned to driving instruction. His senior officers were sufficiently indulgent to allow him to pursue his commissions for The Sketch , with the operations room as his de facto studio, including use of the telephone so that urgent commissions from Rogers and Co. could be turned around with suitable military precision. * * * The end of the war sawDavidWright extending his activities into the US with the ever resourceful Jack Wall (whom David’s son Paul, describes as looking like a cross between Charles Laughton and a Mexican bandit with tinted hair and a corset to buttress himself against the ravages of time), securing a series of covers for the Hearst group of magazines. When this source of work eventually petered out, he gained some lucrative commissions for advertising agencies who were keen to exploit his ability to create seductive ‘upper class lovelies’ for a variety of campaigns, most notably his long- running series of ‘Schweppes girls’. In 1950 he made his first foray into the world of strip cartoons when he created ‘Jo’ for The Sunday Empire News . When The Sunday Empire News ceased publication, Wright concocted a similar girly strip for the popular UK weekly, Tit-Bits . ‘Judy’ was a fairly lightweight affair in terms of plotting and characterisation but the artwork Continued on page 20 All images on this page courtesy of the Mary Evans Picture Library ABOVE: Lance-Bombadier David Wright R.A. Although the initials referred to the Royal Artillery, Wright was amused at his implied elevation to fellowship of the Royal Academy. ABOVE TOP: Sketches of an unknown young woman.