Do you like Norman Rockwell’s illustrations and artwork as much as we do?  Enter here to win a Free Norman Rockwell wall calendar, for a limited time! Contest ends 12/31/2011

I have always admired the artwork of famous artist Norman Rockwell, but for some reason, never realized that he also produced illustrations and stock art for use in advertisements and marketing materials.  Here are some vintage Norman Rockwell advertisements that feature his unique, photo-realistic illustrative style.  Rockwell’s masterpieces even made the cover of The Saturday Evening Post a number times.  Way before there was Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, or even mainstream digital photography, Norman Rockwell was a true creative.

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The creative imagery of Carlos Caetano has always amazed and inspired me, ever since beginning my journey as a stock photographer.  Born in the sixties, Carlos Caetano started and developed his career as a graphic designer in studios and advertising agencies. He stood a few years in a magazine and multimedia publishing house and, later, worked as web designer in a major internet portal in Portugal. Self-taught, Carlos took advantage of his privileged access to the digital graphics tools and specialized in the use of Photoshop for image post-processing and optimization.

Being a photo enthusiast since a very early age, Carlos took a course in professional photography between 1994 and 1997. Today, he works as a freelance graphic designer and photographer and is a contributor of stock imagery to several online image banks. The royalty free stock photos that he creates can be bought and downloaded by designers that use them in various marketing and advertising products, books, blogs, or editorial pieces.

Carlos Caetano is a “Pentaxian” and actually uses a Pentax K10D DSLR, several Pentax and Sigma lenses and Manfrotto tripods. When not outdoors shooting landscapes, he is at home, busy with tabletop shoots of objects in his improvised studio: the dining-room table next to a big, luminous window, and a piece of white paper or styrofoam to bounce light into the shadows. This is all he needs as studio gear, allied with his Photoshop skills.  His images can be found for sale on stock photography sites such as Shutterstock.com,  istockphoto.com,  dreamstime.com,  fotolia.com,  bigstockphoto.com,  and several others. He is available for photographic assignments, photo post-processing and manipulation.

To contact Carlos or to view more of his work, check out:

ccaetano.com

picsweep.blogspot.com

facebook.com/ccaetano

Would you like your work to be featured on the Arena Creative blog?  Whether you are a photographer or a graphic designer, if you have something creative to share we would love to feature your work!  Contact us if you are interested.

Norman Rockwell was such a great illustrator, that he was practically a photographer.  His photo realistic images and sense of humor in his work have blown me away ever since I was a kid.  My mom used to hang prints of these on the kitchen wall, that she cut out of a Norman Rockwell calendar she got as a handout from the local bank.  We’ve always had beagles, growing up, so these are some of my favorites.  This stuff is just timeless. Read the rest of this entry »