Monthly Archives: June 2009

Friday Freebies

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Two new downloads for kids (and grown-up kids,too).

It’s been too long since I added downloadables to the Fun page on my website, so I’m fixing that today. I just put up a new Mermaid Bookplate that you can print out and then cut out and paste into a good-sized book or notebook or even sketchpad.

And it’s time for a new maze, so I made a Sun Maze in honour of the summer solstice on Sunday. It’s a pretty tricky one and you’ll need a super sharp pencil because the paths are quite narrow. It might take you a minute to find where you are supposed to come out. Here’s a hint: it’s just to the right of the sun drawing in the middle.

To find both these downloads, visit my Fun page and scroll down to Bookplates and Mazes. I promise to add more soon!

Book Illustration Fan Sites

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Two bloggers who know what they like.

Now here’s a gorgeous blog with a great title. (I’m going to make you click on the link to learn what it is. I think it’s worth the trip.) Its author, Will, is a connoiseur of beautiful historical illustrated books whose images he takes the time to post for our enjoyment. His blog is thoughtful and well researched, especially on his series of Lost Illustrators from the past. (The concept of Lost Illustrators intrigues me. There are a number of ways you could imagine them…a desert island full of people busy scratching images into books made of bark? Illustrators seized by the urge to run away to said desert island? I could go on.) Will has chosen some very worthy illustrators to spotlight. All of them have inspired me, so thanks, Will.

I also recommend the extraordinary early 20th century book covers from Japan. There are delightful and strange images here, clearly influenced by Western art trends like Art Nouveau and Art Deco.

The other blog I am enjoying is Julie’s Children’s Illustration blog. Nice images of illustrators’ work she admires and a whole lot of links to other interesting blogs and websites.

It’s Friday. Go on, put your feet up and look at the cool artwork on both these blogs. Enjoy.

Philip Pullman

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I wonder whether most people regard Philip Pullman as an author and illustrator, picking up on the fact that he made the striking black and white images throughout the His Dark Materials trilogy.

If you visit Philip’s newly expanded website, you will be in no doubt of his illustrative talents. He has created a gallery page showing his illustrations from all three volumes and the book jackets used in many foreign editions, from the Faro islands to Indonesia to Galicia.

I found this section interesting because (in some cases more than others) it shows how other countries’ publishers choose to represent the stories. I am intrigued with the Dutch jackets for His Dark Materials, though I am not sure how much they would entice a child to pick them up. They have used three paintings by the Greek-Italian Surrealist painter Giorgio de Chirico.

I identified two of the jackets as The Mystery and Melancholy of a Street and Torino Printaniere. I guess the publisher decided to show us the arrid, haunted Italianate cityscape of the books’ parallel universe, Cittagazze, rather than main character Lyra and the huge polar bear, Iorek, who seem to be on many of the other jackets.

The most frightening jacket has to be the Slovakian cover of The Subtle Knife – if that deranged pair of eyes doesn’t keep you awake at night, I don’t know what will!

What I’m Working On Now #3

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Rosmore by Teresa Flavin

Rosmore by Teresa Flavin

Forgive my recent absence from the blogosphere, but I have been preoccupied with homely matters and also busy on new projects. I needed to make a fresh image for my crib over on the Picture Book Artists Association website. I decided I’d like to do something in black and white for a change, so I got out my favourite tool, the Rotring Art Pen for sketching. It has a lovely shaped barrel with a fountain pen-style nib. It takes easy-to-use ink cartidges, which means no mess. The mess you could ostensibly make, though, is on your drawing, if you don’t work carefully and let the ink dry thoroughly. I have learned the hard way, as a right-handed person, to work left to right so my hand doesn’t smear things as I go along. I have also managed to smear what I thought was dried ink when I went to erase pencil lines. Gah!

Now you may be wondering: who is the Rosmore in the image? She was inspired by a powerful character in the historical fantasy novel I, Coriander by Sally Gardner, published by Orion Books. Sally is also an accomplished illustrator and designer, which comes across in her highly visual writing style.

I enjoyed the book very much and felt inspired to illustrate Rosmore in her feathered stole and head-dress, sitting in a chair with huge carved wings. She regards herself in a mirror. You might guess from the image that she’s not a particularly sympathetic character, but I don’t want to give Rosmore’s role in the story away – so why not read I, Coriander yourself? It’s well worth it.

I have Sally’s subsequent books about the French Revolution, The Red Necklace and The Silver Blade, in the queue of books I will be reading next!

Tales from Outer Suburbia

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Another stunning book from artist and writer Shaun Tan

Maybe this week’s theme should be “My Heroes”, what with Nick Bantock yesterday and Shaun Tan today. Both gentlemen are certainly alchemists, creating lush worlds from the seemingly ordinary.

Today I have been swooning over Tales from Outer Suburbia, Shaun’s new collection of short illustrated tales. It took me quite a while to get past the end pages, wall to wall doodle-fests of tiny creatures, aliens, robots and caricatures. And then come the full colour illustrations, many bathed in dusty late afternoon light. There is a sense of space to these paintings that reminds me of the American West: big sky and endless tracts of boxy houses. But then Shaun Tan is from Western Australia, so perhaps that big sky feeling is something shared with America.

But just when you are thinking, yeah, wide open spaces – bang! – the next story is about a tiny foreign exchange student who lives in a teacup. Here Shaun’s virtuosic skill in drawing close-ups of household objects is breath-taking. It reminds me of one of his other books, The Arrival, a wordless picture book that was so moving it made me choke up in Borders when I first looked at it.

And then another surprise…the next story’s illustrations are homages to Japanese wooodcuts, with delicate colour and texture. Is there anything this man can’t do? Because as you go along, you find dense hatched ink drawings, beautifully tinted with subtle colour. And then further on, ye gods – is that scratchboard (scraperboard to some folks)? Toward the end of the book, there is a full page spread that looks like pastel or oil pastel, a
riot of pink textures.

Ahh, what a pleasure to read and look at. And so are Shaun’s other books: The Red Tree, The Viewer and The Lost Thing.

If this isn’t enough inspiration for a Friday afternoon, have a look at Shaun’s website and prepare to swoon.

Nick Bantock

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I was rearranging my studio bookshelf today and got caught up in my collection of Nick Bantock’s Griffin and Sabine books. They are truly treasured art objects, stunning examples of paper construction, illustration and storytelling for grown-ups. If you are unfamiliar with the series, it began with Griffin and Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence and culminated in the sixth book a few years ago, The Morning Star: In Which the Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin & Sabine is Illuminated.

The stories are told through gorgeously written and illustrated postcards and letters between a London artist, Griffin, and Sabine, a woman living on a tropical island in the South Pacific. Somehow she is able to “see” what Griffin is drawing and writes a postcard to him out of the blue, describing the image he’s made. This is the start of a mysterious and touching story of their growing interconnectedness. Nick’s mixed media style, incorporating stamps, found images, ephemera and rich swathes of paint never ceases to inspire me. I have become a bit of a collector, I guess. I got so caught up in the story, I bought The Artful Dodger: Images and Reflections, a fantastic collection of Nick’s work over decades and even an interactive game based on the Griffin and Sabine books called Ceremony of Innocence.

Now I hear tell that Nick has illustrated Peter Ackroyd’s retelling of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. He has made elegant and spare, mainly black and white, images that expose a lot of white background, in contrast to the complex layered images he often makes. To see examples of these new illustrations and to learn more about Nick’s work, including his workshops, visit his website.