John Cuneo (illustrator)

Cuneo grew up in Westfield, New Jersey. His father worked as a manager at a plant nursery and his mother as a house wife.[2] He was the oldest of three boys.[3] He and his two brothers would work at the nursery with his father and take home produce to sell at a stand on their front lawn.[2] At the age of 14 he would be dropped off at a neighbors house, Adelaide Johnson once a week where he would spend several hours drawing and receiving advice and encouragement for his animal sketches and imitations of Mad Magazine cartoons by artists who worked for the magazine at the time, such as Jack Davis and Mort Drucker.[3]

Cuneo attended Roosevelt Jr. High, followed by Westfield High School until his junior year, when his family moved to Florida. Once in Florida, the artist would graduate from Lely High School in Naples, Florida in 1975 and go on to attend Florida State University for one year, followed by attending Colorado Institute of Art for an additional year.[4]

At Colorado Institute for Art, Cuneo would learn skills needed in the graphic design business of the time, such as paste-ups with wax, making storyboards and rendering typefaces. Bill Kastan, a local illustrator as well as an instructor at the school, took a liking to Cuneo and provided him with a drawing table in his studio and helped him put together a portfolio.[2] Cuneo and Kastan would remain close friends until Kasten passed away in 2019.[4]

In 1977, while in Denver, Cuneo would join a group of freelance illustrators headed by Joe Malone going under the name of No Coast Graphics, where he did freelance illustrations for the Denver Post as well as Westword.[5] It was also in Denver where Cuneo would meet his wife Jan Larson, an instructor of public speaking and communications.[2]

Cuneo would move from Denver to San Francisco in 1986 and it was there that the artist decided to devote himself entirely to work in editorial illustration. His first published work for a major magazine would appear in Sierra Magazine, under the art direction of Martha Geering. In 1993, the artist would return to Denver and remain there for eight years. It was after his return to Denver that Cuneo would receive his first of many assignments from Entertainment Weekly.

In 2001, Cuneo and his wife would move to Woodstock, New York.[4] After his arrival on the East coast, John Korpics design director at Esquire magazine, would bring in Cuneo in 2002 to publish a series of comics called Damned Good Advice which would run until 2003.[6] and to illustrate the magazine's Sex Advice Column [3] which ran until 2014.[7] Work on the sex column for Esquire would earn the artist two silver awards from the Society of Illustrators.[4]

Cuneo's first New Yorker cover Flu Season would appear on the October 26, 2009 issue. The artists second cover for The New Yorker, Dog Meets Dog which ran on the June 27, 2011 issue and art directed by Francoise Mouly would win him the Hamilton King Award in 2012[8] which is widely thought of as one of the most prestigious awards in illustration.[9] Cuneo's August 5, 2013 New Yorker cover featured Anthony Weiner straddling the top of the Empire State Building and the cover received so much coverage on social media that The New York Times published a story on the topic, interviewing the artist.[10] The cover depicting Weiner would also earn Cuneo a silver medal from the Society of Illustrators. The artist has created ten covers for the New Yorker.[11]

In 2010, Cuneo joined a long list of illustrators invited to join Golf Digest at the Masters Golf Tournament to draw on location and record his impressions of the event.[12] He has been a regular contributor to Golf Digest for many years.[13]

• State of the Art:Illustration 100 Years After Howard Pyle, Delaware Art Museum, 2013[18]

Cuneo uses a Uni-ball roller pen or a pen with archival or water resistant ink, such as a Micron pen, or Rapidograph. Drawings are executed on watercolor paper, usually on a light box directly over a rough sketch. The final work is scanned and delivered to the client as a high resolution digital file.[20] The drawing style is realistic enough to work in the picture while employing a lot of freedom with scale, gravity and asymmetry.[14]

The artist lives in Woodstock, New York with his wife Jan. The couple have one son, Jack Cuneo. The home they live in was originally owned by Robert Grossman, the manager of Bob Dylan and The Band, as well as Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and many other recording artists. When owned by Grossman, the residence would house bands while recording in the Bearsville Studio which was located nearby.[2]

• Official site
• Additional portfolios at illoz