Saturday, March 30, 2013

Then the all-clear sounded.

Above is Maira Kalman's painting of the photo below, showing a library that was bombed in the London blitz.


"Then the all-clear sounded. And people returned, hope undiminished. They returned, so elegant and purposeful to the books."   - From  The Principles of Uncertainty


Frank R. Paul's life on other planets (1939)


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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Argentinian illustrator Isol wins Astrid Lindgren award







See a slideshow of her work here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/gallery

And see a nice selection of Isol's work that Shelley posted here last summer.

Hommage


Amanda Hall has painted Henri Rousseau into his own works. This is a tricky thing to do well. In The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau, a biography written by Michelle Markel, Hall's incorporations are seamless. And more importantly, they feel right.

Right from the start of the book you can feel Hall's deep affinity for Rousseau. In her illustrator's notes she writes about seeing a Rousseau painting for the first time, "It was as though someone turned on a light in my head, a light that shone on something I recognized or remembered." An inspiring story gracefully told, The Fantastic Jungle of Henri Rousseau has illuminating power of its own. 

If you visit The Chris Beetles Gallery on line you can see many of the illustrations from The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau. Visit I.N.K. to read a Q and A with Michelle Markel









The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau
HARDCOVER; Published: 6/11/2012
ISBN: 978-0-8028-5364-6

Klara Persson

Swedish illustrator Klara Persson will be at the Bologna Fair this week showing her lovely books...
molly and sus
klara persson 1

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Rob Dunlavey


"Just to demonstrate how demented or scattershot my artist-self is, I will now show you one slightly edited week of sketchbook entries. These were done between March 4 - 11, 2013. These images are generally worked on in the early morning before family duties and illustration work takes precedence. Most of these pictures are 8 1/2 x 11 inches or smaller."

Ivan Canu's illustrated guide to Bologna Children's Book Fair...

Illozoo News:  Ivan Canu created the Illustrated Guide to the Bologna Children's Book Fair. It is designed to work on smartphones and iPads.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Friday, March 22, 2013

An adaptation of Hanne Kvist's children's book

(A bleak and haunting Madeline. Click here to see the fan art.)

Hund i Himlen (subtitled) from Jeanette Nørgaard on Vimeo.


"The little girl, Lora, arrives at a secluded monastery with her only friend, Dog. Dogs are forbidden inside the monastery, so while Lora gets uniformed, as prescribed by the rules of the monastery, the head nun puts down Dog. The strict rules of the monastery does not allow Lora to mourn the loss of her lost friend, so she decides to turn into a dog herself and confront all the rules that have been upheld for generations."

Picture This

If you're in New York next month, check out 'Picture This', a group of evenings which gets local illustrators and their French counterparts together to talk shop, from April 8th to May 17th...

...Herve Tullet and Mo Willems, Olivier Tallec and Oliver Jeffers, to name a few. Sponsored by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

"Sometimes items in the archives have little or no identifying information."

"Found by former project staff in the James Johnson Sweeney general correspondence, these drawings have been tagged as 'adorable.' If you have any information on the artist, email archives@guggenheim.org."

 —Francine Snyder, Director of Library and Archives

I Wish I Had...

Last summer Shelley featured the work of Simona Mulazzani. Today I received a review copy of  I Wish I Had...  illustrated by Simona Mulazzani. Written by Giovanna Zoboli, I Wish I Had... was originally published in Italy.

Mulazzani's jungle plants and cats, with their lush decorative color and smooth shapes, remind me of Henri Rousseau. Both text and illustration are evocative and playful. The illustrations match a variety specific wishes for the talents or qualities of various animals, from the "eyes of a blackbird to see every blade of grass," to the "contentment of a dog in winter when the snow falls outside.A little bonus comes with the endpapers, made from drafts and sketches of interior illustrations. Altogether stylish and fun to study, I Wish I Had... is a beautiful pairing of words and pictures.


Thank you to Eerdmans Publishing.

Title: I Wish I Had...
Author: Giovanna Zoboli

Publisher: William B. Eerdmanns Publishing Company
Release Date: March 2013