Bettie Page Art
Trading card art of Bettie Page
I have come to be known for drawing sexy pinup girl illustrations. It started early in my art career when I was hired to do a series of 51 illustrations for the Bettie Page Foundation. I was asked to do 50 original art pieces on trading cards and one illustration that would be printed and reproduced. The way they had it set up was that each artist’s main piece that was reproduced into a 50 card deck. Then one original from one of the 50 artists would be in the deck. It was great practice but it paid shit.
Here are some of the pieces I did and a bit of the story behind them.
Actual size of card. Each card was only about 2.5”x3.5”
I am an artist who loves detail so trying to put my level of detail on trading card size was difficult.
For some of these illustrations, an entire face was smaller than my thumbnail.
As I was working on these trading card illustrations I always had this voice in my head reminding me to get them done as quickly as I could because I was only get paid $5 per card. All of the original trading cards were sent in and distributed. I have seen some of the cards on ebay for over $100.
I still love drawing Bettie Page but I draw them much bigger now and take my time. I have a couple of originals available in the store. Please go take a look. Here is one of them.
Bettie page original ink drawing by Matt Campbell available for purchase. Unframed. 5x7”
Bettie Mae Page was the most famous pinup girl in America in the 1950s garnering the name “Queen of Pinups”. She modeled in the nude, in bondage and naughty-but-nice poses. Her later life was not so glamorous.
