Studio Visit (19): Dick Bruna 12:05

 

 

Of course, everybody knows Dick Bruna, the creator of “Nijntje” (aka Miffy). In this selection of videos you get to see him at work in his studio…

 

 

 

 

 

Studio Visit (16): Quentin Blake 11:53

I am sure Quentin Blake does not need any introduction. He is one of the most famous and well-loved children’s books illustrators around. You’ve seen his lively drawings in books by Roald Dahl, perhaps. Or in the books he has written himself…

Today, a selection of videos in which Blake talks about drawing and illustration and, better yet, shows us how he does it.

Enjoy.

 

In the first one, Quentin Blake talks about the definition of the word “illustration”…

 

The second one is a visit to his studio.

 

The last one focuses on his drawing technique and method.

 

If you haven’t got enough of Quentin Blake, watch him draw the readers at a book festival here or check out this really nice interview at the Quentin Blake website.

Carll Cneut 11:29

Once again a spotlight on a Flemish illustrator of children’s books.

Carll Cneut (°1969) studied graphic design at the Saint-Lucas Arts School  in Ghent (the city where he still lives today). At first, he worked as an art director at a publicity agency. His 1996 debut illustrating children’s books was called “Varkentjes van Marsepein” (Piglets of Marsepain), a collaboration with writer Geert De Kockere. They went on to make six more picture books together. In 2002 Cneut made his writing debut with “The Amazing Love Story of Mr Morf”.

His distinctive style is achieved through the use of a combination of acrylics, pastels, pencil and ink. Some examples…

 

 

 

For more, go here. Cneut has a lot of his work published abroad or translated. The site can be read in English and French.

Also, here, you can find a more extensive article on Carll Cneut, in English.

Tom Schamp 11:10

 

 

 

Tom Schamp is a Flemish illustrator with a long track record. He used to make a lot of work for magazines and newspapers, cd-covers and other commercial graphics, but nowadays he’s more into making picture books (he has made 15 of them in the last 5 years).

The “Literair Museum” (literary museum) of Hasselt, Belgium is having a nice exhibition of Schamps’ work which focuses mainly on this more recent work for picture books. The illustrations are far more detailed than his older work and always very humoristic. Schamp has a fascination for strange objects, little hand painted boxes, stamps, animal-shaped coffeepots, you name it… They appear in his pictures but apparently, they are real too. A whole collection of them is on display at the exhibition.

Also worth discovering is the more technical aspect of his work. Schamp uses acrylic paint to achieve the typical intensity of his colors, but he makes all the different elements of an illustration separately on pieces of cardboard, which later get scanned to be puzzled together digitally.

If you are anywhere near Hasselt, Belgium, try to pay a visit to this lovely artist and his work. For now, here’s a small selection of older and more recent work.

 

Visit the site of the Literair Museum Hasselt here. (The exhibition runs ‘till November 7, 2010). Or go to the site of Tom Schamp himself for some more work here.

Paper View (4): Mattotti 11:32

 

In the Paper View series we watch people draw. Today, we’ve got a big shot: Italian maestro of comics Lorenzo Mattotti!

I’m a big fan of Mattotti. I love his color work (mostly crayons and pastels) but every now and again he goes completely black and white. Some of his very best comics he made like that (the somewhat under-appreciated “Stigmates” for instance), and in this video he once again goes for the starkest black on white.

The clip is in French (with Spanish subtitles),so you already have two shots at understanding Mr Mattotti. If that doesn’t help you, I’m adding a few sentences here, with the highlights of what he has to say…

The New Yorker magazine had asked several people for an illustration for the “Hansel and Grethel” fairytale. These would be presented at an exhibition in a New York gallery.

“Drawing in black and white requires for the artist to be very concentrated to see what’s going on in the drawing.” says Mattotti. “It is very direct, there is only room for the very essence of the drawing. And with these signs and marks, what interests me most is the storytelling, the evocation of a story through the drawing.”

“Hansel and Grethel” has always been one of the fairytales that scared Mattotti the most when he was still a child, but being scared is not something he thinks is bad for children. In fact, he thinks children quite like to be scared of things they see in stories, it fascinates them to be confronted with mystery and fear on paper.

“And anyway,” says Mattotti,”I didn’t make this drawing for children. I made it for myself. For who I was, as a child.”

 

 

Find the official Mattotti website here.

Paper View (3): Juan Berrio 13:05

 

 

Juan Berrio is a Spanish illustrator and creator of comics and children's books. He also does wonderful things with his little Moleskine-notebook…

 

 

Check out his website for more of his illustrations (and even some photography) at www.juanberrio.com or take a look at his blog on juanberrio.blogspot.com again for illustrations but also a lot of short comics. Also worth paying a visit to is cuaderno de frases encontradas, a blog filled with sketches of overheard conversations.

 

Technorati Tags: comics,illustrations,moleskine,juan berrio

Studio Visit (9): M. Dudok de Wit 17:42

 

 

Somebody send me a beautiful animated short through StumbleUpon this morning: “Father and Daughter” by Michael Dudok de Wit (thanks again, Dejan). This must be one of the most touching animation films I’ve ever seen. A beautifully told story, beautifully drawn and animated. I had seen it before as a children's book, but never as a film.

After seeing it, I went searching for more work by Dudok de Wit and found two more animated short films: “The Monk and the Fish” and “The Aroma of Tea”. All three films are very different in tone. Where the first one is an intense sad tale, the second is much more funny and light and the third strangely abstract. Each, in its own right, is well worth seeing.

 

 

 

It must have been my lucky day, because to top it all of, I also found a short interview with the maker of the films. Michael Dudok de Wit is Dutch an apparently has a very nice studio garden shed kind of thing in his backyard.

You can watch the interview here. If you would like to see the films first, check out the links below. I must warn you: the image quality of the video isn’t all that great and it also seems to start in French but don’t worry, the rest of it is in English.

 

 

And here are the links for the three shorts:  Father and Daughter, The Monk and the Fish and The Aroma of Tea.

There is a website for Michael Dudok de Wit but at the time of this writing it seems to be under construction. Nevertheless: www.dudokdewit.co.uk/. More info can also be found here.

Technorati Tags: Michael Dudok de Wit,Father and Daughter,The Monk and the Fish,The Aroma of Tea,animation

Studio Visit (8): Oliver Jeffers 11:36

Oliver Jeffers is an artist, designer, illustrator and writer from Northern Ireland. He is probably most widely known for his picture books for children like “How to Catch a Star”, “Lost and Found”, ”The Incredible Book Eating Boy” and “The Way Back Home”, but also does illustrations for newspapers and commercial assignments. As if that is not enough to keep a man occupied, Jeffers also works as an artist, making paintings and objects and exhibiting his work in New York, Washington DC, London, Sidney, Dublin and Belfast.

Two videos today: one, a visit to Jeffers’ studio (very nice little film, by the way) and the second a look at what some kids have to say about his books. Always fun.

And of course some examples of his work…

 

  

 

Time for the studio visit…

 

 

In the following video we see what three first graders at the Lincoln Community School in Lincoln, Vermont have to say about Jeffers’ books…

 

Now, wasn’t that cute?

 

More on Oliver Jeffers? Visit his lovely website Oliverjeffers.com

Technorati Tags: Childrfens' books,Oliver Jeffers