Kent Steine, pinup artist, and author, is a native of Madison, Wisconsin.  Although his various airbrush techniques are fully self-taught, he studied art at the Madison Area Technical College, with illustrator and former Famous Artists Schools faculty member, Owen Kampen.  In the years that followed, Steine produced countless illustrations for corporate advertising campaigns, as well as cover and editorial art for more than 50 regional and nationally distributed magazines.  Among them, a few award winning designs, including an Award of Excellence winner at the 1990 Communications Concept Design Competition in Washington D.C..

   During this time, Steine began to produce work that was more challenging and interesting such as science fiction, action and fantasy illustration.  In addition to drawing and painting, he also studied cinematography in college. He produced storyboards and concept illustration for movies; story and artistic collaborations in comics; trading card layouts and illustration; artwork for books, and for authors like Isaac Asimov.

In 1983, Steine was invited by the Chairman of the Art Department at his former art school to create and teach an airbrush class.  After eight years and over 1000 students, he quit teaching and accepting commercial work.  Continuing to persue projects that were more rewarding , he worked on Comico's Jonny Quest; and Space Ghost Comics (in college he co-produced a series of award winning comic strips) as well as painting backgrounds and special effects for a proposed animated action series for television.

Between commissions Steine painted pinup.  During his first visit to Los Angeles to discuss the animation project, the tradition continued.  While there, he was invited to sketch and photograph a few well known actresses, and Playboy Playmates©.  The resulting studies and paintings lead to an exclusive contract with the Stabur Corporation producing a series of limited edition prints, and related items such as calendars, art portfolios and instructional video tapes.

When his work on the animation project was completed, Steine began painting pinup full time for Stabur.  With press and promotional campaigns expertly crafted by the multi-faceted Stabur Corporation, and striking images that echoed back to the good old' days, these paintings created new interest and demand for glamorous pictures of beautiful women. Posed by some of the most attractive and popular stars of today's Hollywood, there were virtually thousands of submissions by well known, and not so well know actresses and models for the ten print portfolio.  Modeling sessions were held at a motion picture studio, which enabled Steine to create dramatic theatrical lighting for his reference sketches and photographs.  The results were breathtaking and demand was overwhelming.  The images would appear in a variety of venues including collector trading cards, and magazine features.  Since then Steine has focused his efforts on painting in the tradition and skill of the classic pinup and cheesecake artists of the past.  His highly sought after originals are typically sold to collectors prior to completion, and are reproduced by publishers and advertisers alike..

Steine's appreciation and knowlege of 20th Century Illustration Art was the key to researching and writing a book about celebrated illustrator J.C. Leyendecker (published 1996).  The completed volume, containing some of Leyendeckers' greatest paintings, and with previously unpublished information, received rave reviews in everything from American Artist to Playboy.  He followed that effort by writing a book about noted pinup artist Billy DeVorss (Published 1996) .  September 2000, Steine began his series of "Masters" articles for Step-By-Step Graphics Magazine with a feature about famed illustrator and friend, Harry Anderson. The editors of Step-By-Step considered it to be one of the best articles they had published. Steine signed on as a contributing writer until the unfortunate demise of the magazine. Prior to leaving Step-By-Step, he wrote an article for the inaugural issue of Illustration magazine about artist and friend, Jack Faragasso. Along with collector, historian, and friend LeRoy Darwin, Steine is writing a comprehensive book about Pinup Artist, Earl Moran.

In 1998, Steine began publishing his own work.  Serving as artist and publisher allows him to reproduce his paintings with the highest quality state of the art results and absolute control over distribution.  Steine elected to return to teaching during the Fall 2000 semester, however scheduling and personal responsibilities became overwhelming just two years later, forcing him to retire. Steine has lectured on the subject of illustration art, and is considering the possibility of instructing through visiting workshops, and video. He provides consultation to various agencies and corporations such as the Illustration House, Inc., The History Channel, and collectors, with authentication and identification of paintings, and related material.  Steine's work is being licensed for numerous venues including Axe products for men, USO posters, book covers, refridgerator magnets, and are reproduced as posters, trading cards, limited edition prints, and calendar art.  Steine currently lives in Madison, Wisconsin.