Art Heros: Rien Poortvliet

One of my favorite books growing up was Gnomes by Wil Huygen, illustrated by Rien Pootvliet. I loved the detail in his illustrations - almost scientific in their detail.

As a kid, I had no idea the book was originally published in Dutch. I was surprised and delighted to find a copy at my host family's home.I've been thinking a lot about this book lately. Who knows, it might even inspire a gnome print of my own.

Art Heros: Ed Emberly

Growing up, I spent hours upon hours making drawings from the Ed Emberly drawing books. My four dog-earred copies are right here on the shelf next to me as I write this. As a kid I was always surprised that so few of my friends knew about these books and remember watching them shock themselves when they were able to draw a pirate, car, vampire or a cat after just a few minutes at my kitchen table. Learning how to draw this way (using his alphabet of 6 shapes like he talks about in the video above) definitely influenced my drawing style forever.

Finally this guy is getting the recognition he deserves. A recent show in Los Angeles, and even a limited edition letterpress print with Cloudy Collection (right alongside some today's illustration heavyweights - Tad Carpenter, S.Britt, and Meg Hunt).

Above all, I love Emberly's mission to empower everyone to draw, to help them feel like they can succeed at it. Check out Ed Emberly's website it includes a lot of free projects and drawing tutorials. And get drawing!

Art Heros: Abner Graboff

from The Sun Looks Down by Miriam Schlein. Illustrated by Abner Graboff. 1954

A few weeks ago I stumbled across this Flickr Set dedicated to Abner Graboff and I instantly fell in love. I love the delicate balance of solid shapes and line in his work,and the colors he uses are outstanding. The uber-talented illustrator Ward Jenkins posted a wonderful three part interview with Graboff's son over at his blog that is fantastic (thank you Ward)!

from The Sun Looks Down by Miriam Schlein. Illustrated by Abner Graboff. 1954

Goldilocks

Some weeks I have nothing much to report. So instead I give you this lovely animated version of one of the favorite books in my house these days James Marshall's version of Goldilocks.  I love the subversive nature of his characters, and his drawing style too.

More soon when I find my brain.

Art Heros: Wayne Thiebaud

As I was making pies tonight, I couldn't help but thinking of one of my favorite painters, Wayne Theibaud. I love his images of pies, cakes and other food stuff. I love the lines he makes, the colors he layers together, the thickness of the paint, and the brushstokes.

When I Googled him tonight I came across this endearing look into his work, and the artist himself, who is about as humble as, well, pie. This makes me love his work even more. I also love what he says about hope, and perseverance.

Enjoy!

Art Heros: Maya Lin

This week I received an autographed copy of Maya Lin's book Boundaries from my in-laws who recently met her when she spoke about the Confluence Project (a multi-site artwork memorializing the Lewis and Clark expedition and the American Indian cultures that grew up along the Columbia River’s length).

Lin is probably best known for her design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. In 1981 she won a public design competition for the memorial the at the age of 21 and while still an undergraduate. I visited D.C. in 1996. Seeing the memorial in person was significant to me. I grew up hearing stories of so many family friends who never came back from Vietnam, and had relatives who came back completely and forever changed.  

I've been a fan of hers ever since. 

Art Heros: Aliki Brandenberg

Last week I got a surprise birthday gift from a friend. It is an Ex Libris Anonymous art journal made from a picture book illustrated by The Artist Aliki. The book, titled "All Kinds of Neighbors" is adorable and I love the drawing style. I looked for more information on this lady illustrator and found a collection of her drawings on this flickr site dedicated to vintage illustration.

Don't Try To Be Original

I love everything Paul Rand says in this piece. Plus the animations of his work are pretty darn great as well.

Courage

I've always loved Tomie DePaola. After a weekend of struggling to make something, anything that looked like anything - I needed to hear exactly what Tomie said in this video.

Favorite Things Friday : Rain

Meeting to feed Birds $35 

Limited Edition print by Matte Stephens 

April Rain Song

Let the rain kiss you
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops
Let the rain sing you a lullaby
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk
The rain makes running pools in the gutter
The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night
And I love the rain.

 - Langston Hughes 

Art Heros: Saul Steinberg

 

 

 

 

We recently did a huge reorganization / purge of our home office when I moved my headquarters back home. I was so happy when I rediscovered my book on Saul Steinberg and sat down with it over a cup of tea last weekend. I fell in love all over again with his confident yet friendly line work and ever present sense of humor. So inspiring! 

And I love this quote about him "The idea of disguise is central to Steinberg’s art. In the world as he saw it, everyone wears a mask, whether real or metaphorical. People invent personas through clothing, hairstyles, furniture, and posture; cities define themselves by their architecture, nations by their icons."

If you want to see more of his work there is a great collection of his covers for the New Yorker here. Check out the Saul Steinberg Foundation for other images. 

And now I'm off to make some lines of my own. Maybe in the bath....

Illustration Friday: Wilderness

How could I resist dedicating this post to one of my heroes Dick Proenekke, solo star of the documentary "Alone in The Wilderness"? If you've never watched the series, grab yourself a warm beverage and go here now to be introduced.

The first time I watched the series my hubby and I had turned on the tv one boring evening (back when we had those sort of evenings) and there he was. His voiced over narration was so soft and drone-like I had unpleasant flashbacks to those science filmstrips we had to watch before the world was blessed with VHS.

A few minutes into "Alone…" though, we were both riveted with the story of this man's chosen life in the woods. I was awestruck with his bravery, resourcefulness, and creativity. And talk about the ultimate off the grid do it your selfer. Wow - so impressive. This guy was magic: turning tin cans into door hinges, whiting his own spoons, hunting his own food, making a canoe out of a tree. All in a days work for Mr. Proenneke. In addition to all that he had the foresight to create a wonderful piece of 'reality tv' decades before anyone else.

So there you have it! My inspiration for this sketch was based on this great photo. Don't you love his cap?