Al Buell was born in 1910 in Hiawatha, Kansas. He briefly considered an engineering career before joining the Chicago Art Institute. In 1935 he joined the Stevens-Hall-Biondi art studio in Chicago and by 1940 he had opened his own studio. Buell was among the artists who contributed to Esquire's Gallery of Glamour commencing in 1946. He provided illustrations for many of America's mainstream magazines and was active in the advertising field, most notably for Coca-Cola in the 1940s and 1950s.