Old Golden Books from the 1940s to the early 1960s are great painting reference.
There are tons of artists with different styles and approaches.
Many of the artists were Disney BG painters and they did more personal work for Golden Books. I'll put down some thoughts about 3 of them in a bit.
J.P. Miller
(J.P.MILLER'S "THE LITTLE RED HEN" ON AMAZON
)Dick Kelsey
Mary Blair
(Little Verses Part 2)
All three of these artists use the theories and techniques that I have been talking about in the last few color posts.
The result is a wide variety of color combinations and looks and very cartoony fun styles.
The defenders of the pink and purple style keep saying stuff like "Well I LIKE bright colors!" as if those are the only bright colors.
These paintings are far more "colorful" "bright" and candy like than seeing the same old cheesy corporate color stylings over and over again.
The people who made Golden Books back then understood kids and seemed to have liked them. Not only the artists, but the publishers themselves to have allowed the artists to be kind to our eyes and minds.
