Studio Visit (3): I. Vandenabeele

 

 

 

Isabelle Vandenabeele is a Belgian children’s book illustrator who likes to work with traditional printing techniques like woodcut or linocut. The results she gets are, however, far from traditional. In her rewriting of Little Red Riding Hood (“Rood rood roodkapje” – Red Red Riding Hood)  the little girl wields a big and blood-drenched axe. Everything is red or black. When she tells a story about your shadow “Mijn schaduw en ik” (My Shadow and I) she uses the most vibrant, clashing colors.  This approach gets noticed and Vandenabeele has won numerous awards for her work: the Boekenpluim in 2002 for “Kind” (Child), the Zilveren Penseel and the Plantijn Moretus award in 2004 for “Rood rood roodkapje” and The Boekenpauw 2006 for “Mijn schaduw en ik”.

Another advantage of working with the above mentioned techniques is that the heavy machinery you need automatically makes your studio look impressive. Who wouldn’t want such a nice printing press in his or her workplace? Even if you don’t know how to operate it…

 

 

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