We recently connected with Lada Trabant and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Lada thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I bought a used iPad and decided I wanted to learn how to draw. Having a background in history meant that I wanted to do art that drew on my background in history, so pin ups seemed like a good place to start. I taught myself how to draw on Procreate. The best way to learn how to make art is to make a commitment to do it every day and to keep doing that. Sometimes if I don’t like the way a piece is going, I just finish it anyway for more practice. Looking at other people’s art, finding reference images, and learning about other artists and their processes are all good ways to learn in addition to the act of doing art itself. Almost all art has some historical background, so learning more about the background can be a helpful way to learn and improve outside of just doing the art. Talking to other artists and learning about their process can also be informative. I would say that my time spent on art is split pretty evenly between doing the art itself and consuming media related to art (including finding reference images). Tumblr is one of my favorite places to find reference images.

Lada, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I started drawing pin ups in September of 2023. Now, in February of 2025, I have drawn over 200 pin up girls. I am most proud of how well I followed through on my commitment to learning how to draw, and how I continue to draw and learn and improve. Inspiration comes from many different places, and a lot of my ideas for what I draw come from my lived experience and my historical knowledge. The cities I have lived in (Denver and St. Louis), the historical periods I have studied, and my favorite movies and music have all shown up in my art. I built a successful business in the past hand making incense, so pin ups are not my first artistic venture. A big reason I wanted to learn how to draw was to be able to draw a new logo for my incense business. I have yet to draw that logo, but it’s still on my list of goals. Pin ups, while a relic of the past, are still interesting and relevant since people love them now as much as they did then. Pin ups have been an important aspect of many different aspects of history: tattoo history, military history with their relevance in World War II, pulp magazine and pulp art history, and advertising history with their use in successful ad campaigns.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

The Internet Archive is an amazing resource, especially for artists whose work is extremely influenced by the past. Lots of old books and magazines with wonderful reference images can be found there. I definitely recommend using The Internet Archive and donating if you are able to because it is a great resource for anyone who wants to be able to learn without a paywall barrier. My favorite pin-up artist is Peter Driben, who did oil paintings of pin ups which were used as the cover art for several pulp magazines full of pin up photography and articles. I have been able to find a lot of his work using the Internet Archive. I have also been able to find scans of the pin up pulp magazines to use as references, and those can be very hard to find in their physical format due to their age (as the pulp paper was cheaply made and does not hold up very well, especially if improperly stored). These magazines, like Wink and Beauty Parade and Titter, are the precursor to magazines like Playboy and Penthouse- they walked by showing topless girls so Playboy could run by showing girls with absolutely nothing on.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I love drawing my pin ups, so I love sharing them with other people. My goal is to encourage other people to go after their own goal of making art and learning how to best artistically express themselves. Even when it is difficult, continuing to do art and improving on it is better than not trying at all or giving up on it. Now that I make art, I really can’t stop doing it even if it is difficult, because it is harder to not create.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @lada.trabant
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/166uR2k2Cq/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Image Credits

Christopher Strunk