Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Fiep Westendorp




I paint (on the computer) the way a kid makes a figure out of clay. That is, I plunk down just about any shape, and then I push and prod it into looking like something. But I’ve noticed that just about everybody that I admire Draws. The Line is very important to the way they work.

Today Mo Willems posted a drawing by Fiep Westendorp. Her exaggerated use of line is wonderful, not to mention her silhouettes, graphic shapes, and colors.
Bibi is back! with links to the children's book flickr pages of P-E Fronning, a.k.a. Martin Klasch.

"His last addition to the set was Jim, Jock and Jumbo, a children's book published in New York in 1946. The book was illustrated by Swedish artist Einar Norelius. The other two books are: a book about Papier-mâché and Människornas land, a Danish book with illustrations of children and puffins."

Also look for the wonderful example of work by Herbert Leupin.

And thanks to Bibi, for linking to the works of Toru Fukuda and Lefor Openo. (See Lefor Openo Posters here. )

Friday, February 23, 2007

Charley Harper...


a master of Mid-Century Modernism has a book coming out. Amid at Cartoon Brew says,
"...Ammo Books is getting ready to release what could become one of the must-have books of recent times: a humongous monograph on mid-century illustration legend Charley Harper. The project was initiated by fashion designer Todd Oldham who discovered Harper’s work in 2001 and has been collaborating with Harper since then to put together this book... As far as I know, Harper never worked in animation, but his work has inspired countless animation artists from 1950s-era designer Cliff Roberts to Samurai Jack background painter Scott Wills. Animator Nate Pacheco was even trying to translate Harper’s designer into Flash animation last year."

Thursday, February 22, 2007

236 words—only one of them more than two syllables


Anyone wanting to know just how an easy reader/picture book classic is made will be interested in seeing this Newsweek article about the upcoming Annotated Cat In the Hat.

...it took him a year and a half to write and draw the book, an experience that he once described as like “being lost with a witch in a tunnel of love.”

I love seeing the sketches paired with the final illustrations.

(Thanks, Fuse. By the way, siding with the fish doesn't make a person bad or uptight. That loose cannon Cat is scary.)

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Fat Tuesday


KATRINARITA GRAS, February 2006, by William Joyce (via Reading Rockets, a terrific source for interviews, and http://www.williamjoyce.com/)

If you are exposed to it as a kid you will never be quite like other people. How could you be?
You’ve watched an entire adult population, your parents, your aunts and uncles, your teachers or your school principles; all your authority figures, suddenly transform into Poseidon, or Mae West or a cross-dressing Santa Claus. Everyday life becomes an overnight Technicolor fever dream. Schools close. The daily schedule is thrown out for a new schedule of parties and parades that become an unending delirium where it’s not inconceivable but in fact highly likely that you might look out the den window at any given moment and see several dozen men and women dressed as Yogi Bear drift nonchalantly by in a papier-mâché galleon.

Saturday, February 17, 2007

What do you do if you don't like the cover they give you?


You make your own: http://www.jamesbernardfrost.com/buy.html

"What I would do is go out on a particularly rainy night on a bike, wearing mostly black with a few reflective devices so I didn't get killed, put a bunch of queued up stickers underneath my jacket and ride around to all the bookstores in town..."
As seen on fusenumber8.blogspot.com!

Chris Ashley's Book Collection

with links and interesting info: chrisashley.net/weblog

I like the way he writes about the covers. He’s analytical, but very conversational:

It's a small thing, and many artists would've continued their process and just outlined everything, but here is an instance of a little restraint that is enormously significant.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

The Elephant as Muse


Literary Awards Announced


The Cybil Winners
(jpeg courtesy of readingyear.blogspot.com)

Personalize your own Archie Valentine cards and envelopes

Riverdale_High_School

“Well, you can keep the locket, but just wash your hands if you touch it, and don’t touch it if you can help it. Happy Valentine's Day!”

That’s what I told my daughter (age 13) today, when she received a beautiful heart-shaped locket (with picture of her dog inside). I noticed that the locket made grayish marks against the inside of its cardboard box. I spent an hour online, looking up product recall lists, and information on lead in jewelry.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Sierra Club are taking steps toward banning lead in kids' jewelry. In the meantime, avoid buying silver-colored jewelry that's not real silver.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Free Books & Palindromes From Chronicle

Find the palindromes. (Click on picture to enlarge)

From Mom and Dad Are Palindromes: A
Dilemma For Words . . . and Backwards
written
by Mark Shulman and illustrated by Adam McCauley

Find more palindromes here.
And then click http://www.chroniclebooks.com/kidscontests/
to enter "The Best Chronicle Children's Books of the Year Contest. Grand Prize: Free gift basket filled with autographed copies of four of the Best Chronicle Children's Books of 2006 and more!"

Thanks, Fuse!

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Michael Sloan and Ulf K.

www.michaelsloan.net/
and Ulf K.

This color combo is so great. I’m tempted to take the Mad cover down and post it later, when there is more white space between the two illustrations.

A Mad Valentine

from March 1959, by Kelly Freas

Does it really have to be 29 pages?

I'm putting together a picture book dummy. It's 31 pages. I'm finding it very difficult to get it down to 29. Does it really have to be 29?

Friday, February 09, 2007

Babies

.................................................Baby Face!


..and Baby Goose (You might have to look for Baby Goose under a stack of books)

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

The Seussalope Wall Trophy Model Kit


From monstersinmotion.com --Price: $125.

In 1938 Dr. Seuss and his publisher sold wall trophies "From the BOBO ISLES." Price: $3.75 to $15. For "the Walls of your Game-Room, Nursery or Bar!” How’s that for versatility? Thanks to Charles D. Cohen, author of "Seuss, The Whole Seuss and Nothing but the Seuss"

Monday, February 05, 2007

Cozy Tomato





Japanese illustrator, Cozy Tomato (or Koji Tomoto) produces work for books, magazines, and advertising. If you like Ed Emberley, I think you'll like Cozy. You should get over to his site, and this site pronto!

Sunday, February 04, 2007

A Dale Maxey flickr slideshow

www.flickr.com/photos/bonitoclub/tags/dalemaxey/show/

Kathleen W. Deady's Great Book Collection



Author Kathleen W. Deady has a very impressive collection of children's books, and she has posted her photos of these books online. And not just the covers either. You can see samples of the interior illustrations.

The above jpegs are from Kathleen's copy of Listen! Listen! by Ann Rand, illustrated by Paul Rand, c. 1970.

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Shiba Productions

I wanted to post this link about Shiba Productions earlier, but Blogger has been acting up. Shiba's founder, Kihachiro Kawamoto, created the sets and dolls (or "puppets") for those Hans Christian Andersen*/Golden books--the ones with the 3-D illustrations, and lenticular covers (they look like holograms).

*But not only Hans Christian Andersen.

Thanks, Rose! And thanks to Esmé for "lenticular."

Emanuele Luzzati, 1921-2007

Michael Sporn has posted about Emanuele Luzzati, the “Italian designer, who worked with Giulio Gianini in creating some wonderful animated cut-out films.”

Mr. Sporn has updated his site with examples of the Luzzati/Gianini film, The Thieving Magpie, "the first of their films to receive an Oscar nomination." http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=943

Mr. Luzzati was also an author and illustrator. You can see examples of his illustration here.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Clay and Puppets


I’m a sucker for dioramas and those photo illustrations/puppet displays by T. Izawz & S. Hijikata, and Shiba Productions. So I was happy to receive a copy of THE CAT WHO WOULDN’T COME INSIDE by Cynthia von Buhler. I like the story. But it’s the detailed photography (of miniature furniture and characters made with Sculpey clay) that’s most interesting. At first glance it appears to be quaint. But Ms. von Buhler is a savvy marketer and an artistic dynamo. She's produced a very elaborate website linking to a wacky music video on YouTube: http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKtm9TS_m6Q

She has other sites, one for her other works and books. And one site advertising her loft/exhibition space.