30 Apr 2009 1 Comment
in All my drawings, Illustration Tags: drawing, Illustration
In my last post, I showed some of my drawings that were inspired by stories. Now I’m back again to pictures that seem to have been inspired by stories, but the stories are missing and never really existed.
Here are some more pages from my sketchbook. More
26 Apr 2009 1 Comment
in books, fantasy, Illustration Tags: Charles de Lint, fantasy, moonheart
Title: Moonheart
Author : Charles de Lint
Series : Nope, this one is a stand-alone.
Rating:
In Short: Sarah Kendell’s comfortable life is derailed when she discovers an ancient Native American medicine bag at the back of her uncle’s second-hand shop. She and her friends become entangled in a centuries old conflict between a Welsh Bard, a Druid, and the old gods of pre-colonial America.
This was my first Charles de Lint book, and now I have a new author to look out for – I loved it. Moonheart drew me firstly because of its evocative title and the cover: More
15 Apr 2009 4 Comments
in Art, Illustration Tags: books, clarissa leahy, cornelia funke, Illustration, james c christiansen, madalina iordache-levey, margaret mahy
Do you remember the time before you could read, paging through books and looking at the pictures? And once you could read, not really believing that what was written down was the full story? Some pictures are so evocative and mysterious I never felt convinced that I now knew all their secrets.
I’ve been gathering such images and here are some of my favourites. Firstly there is the photographic artist Madalina Iordache-Levey. This image is called “The Mysterious Disappearance of Miss Peregrinne Ploot: More
08 Mar 2009 Leave a comment
in Design Indaba, Illustration, Inspiration, Opinions & reviews Tags: design, Design Indaba, Design Indaba 2009, Marian Bantjes, typography
The last day of the Design Indaba started with Marian Bantjes who proceeded to make me most uncomfortable. She held out a vision of how life could be that I found deeply disturbing.
Work which is synonymous with love. Drawing and writing, ornament and pattern. And the promise that these are within reach if only one is willing to risk it all. More
27 Jul 2008 2 Comments
in Animation, Art, books, Colour, Illustration, Myself Tags: children's books, Illustration
Some books touch your heart. ” An Ocean World” by Peter Sis is one of these. It tells a simple and powerful story about a whale’s search for friendship and love. Apart from the writing on the postcard on the first page, the entire story is told through the images- the evocative watercolour marks and the muted colours. We meet the whale for the first time in baby picture that has been turned into a postcard:
On the back of this card we can read a message from Peter Sis to his children: More
26 Jul 2008 3 Comments
in Art, Colour, Illustration Tags: children's books, Jaap Tol
This is a book that I loved as a child; “Het vroutjie van Stavoren” which means “The Lady of Stavoren” written by Maryke Reesink. This book tells a story with words but also with colours, the wonderful illustrations of Jaap Tol.
Jaap Tol’s paintings let colour run into colour in great splodges. The pages seem saturated and stained. We meet a young spoiled rich girl who has all the clothes and dolls and toys a girl could want – but is still unsatisfied.
She grows into a spoiled and self centred woman who owns more ships and houses than anyone else in the city of Stavoren. She is still unhappy and sends out one of her captains to find “the most precious thing in the world”. More
01 Jul 2008 4 Comments
in books, Illustration Tags: creative process, hobbit covers, JRR Tolkien, story telling, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, writing
Where do stories come from? The process of story creation is fascinating. I’ve been reading a lot about JRR Tolkien, and how he came to write The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Most of the following information was found in Humphrey Carpenter’s biography or Tolkien. You can also read about them here at Tolkien online.com and here at warofthering.net
Tolkien was someone who immersed himself in stories. He had been creating the language and history of Middle Earth for many years, and his stories seem to emerge out of this preoccupation. Tolkien, as quoted in Carpenter’s book: More
30 Jun 2008 3 Comments
in books, Colour, Illustration, Inspiration Tags: children's books, gennady spirin, Illustration
What makes a good subject for a children’s picture book? I see so many similar books on the bookshop shelves. Clear happy pictures, short happy stories. “Once There Was a Tree”, written by Natalia Romanova and illustrated by Gennady Spirin, could not be more different. As a foretaste, here is a page number:
You can read more about Spirin at this page. He is described as being “like a magician, using his paint brush as a wand.” I hope these scans of the books do justice to his work. I was once lucky enough to see an exhibition of his original paintings. They are breathtaking. More
16 Jun 2008 3 Comments
in Art, books, Colour, Illustration, Inspiration Tags: children's books, chinese, fold tale, Illustration, molly bang
Dont you just love an excuse to sort through your book collections? To be paging through old battered survivors of childhood, as well as look at new discoveries. For me, one such new discovery is “the Paper Crane ” by Molly Bang. This little book is perfect. I love the freshness of the storytelling, the sensitivity and beauty of the artwork, and the quiet joy it radiates.
What could be a more satisfying medium for this story than to tell it in pictures made up of folded and cut paper and collage? More
06 Jun 2008 17 Comments
in Art, books, Colour, Illustration Tags: children's books, Errol le cain, Illustration, sleeping beauty
Isn’t it strange how some childhood moments stay with you so clearly, while most things fade into a half remembered muddle? It was just before Christmas, many years ago when I was just a little girl. My family were getting into the car to go home after a visit to the bookshop in Cape Town. My father was holding a brown paper packet. I tried to peep into it and caught a glimpse of two books, but my father whisked them away before I could get a proper look.
That packet re-appeared again under the Christmas tree, and contained Errol Le Cain’s Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. More
03 Jun 2008 26 Comments
in Art, Colour, Illustration, Inspiration Tags: arabian nights, children's books, Illustration, janusz grabianski, watercolor, watercolour
Did you also have books, as a child, that you read over and over again? The images become so familiar that you cannot imagine the story without them. This is, for me, the ultimate edition of The Arabian Nights. The text reworked by Hedwig Smola, translated into Afrikaans by Andre Brink and above all illustrated by Janusz Grabianski.
As a child I loved Grabianski’s vivid colours and strong brushwork – the storytelling in the pictures is just as lively as that in the text. Here you can see the first meeting of Aladdin with the evil magician, pretending to be his long lost uncle. More
02 Jun 2008 Leave a comment
in Art, books, Illustration, Inspiration Tags: drawing, Gormengast, gothic, Illustration, Mervyn Peake, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, writer_artist
Inevitably I have come to Mervyn Peake. Mervyn Peake! That name casts a shadow. Have you read Titus Groan, or Gormenghast? Did you realise he was well known as an illustrator for such classics as Alice in Wonderland, and Treasure Island?
If you have not read him yet, Mervyn Peake is the master of true, dark goth. His creations live below the page, he sculpts his characters and crosshatches them with words. No one else writes, or draws, like Mervyn Peake.
31 May 2008 14 Comments
in Colour, Illustration, Inspiration Tags: children's books, chinese fairy tales, eva bednarova, Illustration
Here is another fabulously illustrated book I would like to share with you: Dana and Milada Stovichkova’s “Chinese Fairy Tales” illustrated by Eva Bednarova. This is a treasure of a book.
23 May 2008 24 Comments
in books, Colour, Illustration, Inspiration Tags: children's books, children's illustration, cinderella, Errol le cain, Illustration
Here is a magical book for you to have a look at: Cinderella by Errol Le Cain. This process of sharing my favorite illustrators has helped me realise how profoundly they have influenced me . When I am asked what my influences are, I tend to think about serious fine artists. Audrey Beardsley maybe? But in all honesty, it is people like Errol Le Cain who have shaped the way I look at things.
I wish I could draw like Errol Le Cain! Here is Cinderella doing her embroidery under the watchful eye of her stepmother and stepsisters. More
19 May 2008 27 Comments
in Art, books, Illustration Tags: Add new tag, charles keeping, children's books, gothic, Illustration, poetry, the highwayman
Illustrator Charles Keeping had a dark side, always just beneath the surface of his work. Compare the work he did in “Joseph’s Yard” with “The Highwayman”, the famous poem by Alfred Noyes. The Highwayman is a satisfyingly Gothic love story of a highwayman and “Bess the landlords red lipped daughter”. You can read (or listen to) the poem here. The poem has a urgent rhythm that drives it along – its the kind of poem you feel compelled to read out loud:
The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
And the highwayman came riding—
Riding—riding—
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.
Masha du Toit 
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