Life Drawing: Pogany's Sketchbook

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 8 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great art instruction posts.


Drawing is a language, and it requires building a vocabulary to be eloquent. Students should carry a sketchbook with them wherever they go and draw everything they see- from people's heads in a late night coffee shop to fireplugs on the street. Everything you draw becomes part of your dictionary of imagery in the future.

Cartoons are about things that aren't real- pure imagination. But even here, it's important to have balance... A friend of mine, Louise Zingarelli once told me, "You can't draw crazy things until you can draw perfectly straight. Wonky perspective all over isn't weird or interesting- it's just ugly and dumb. You've got to have both, working right against wrong... just like working warms against cools in colors."

Recently, we featured the book, Willy Pogany's Drawing Lessons. Pogany was a children's book illustrator who specialized in fantasy subjects. At the end of the book, after the lessons, he presents a selection of his work sketches. Pogany was particularly eloquent, with a huge library of shapes and forms in his head. He also had an amazing sense of balance- making the fantastic seem real. This is truly great draftsmanship.


















This classic book is still in print. Pick up a copy at Amazon for your reference library.


If you found this post to be useful, see Willy Pogany's Drawing Lessons Part One

For more art instruction posts, see The $100K Animation Drawing Course, Fundamentals of Composition Part One and Part Two, Chad's Design for Television, Willard Mullin on Animals, Incorporating Natural Forms- Haeckel's Artforms in Nature, and Originality vs Imitation: Chaplin's Shadow.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
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Illustration: N. C. Wyeth's Legends of Charlemagne

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for more jaw dropping images from classic illustrated books.


Today, we digitized a beautiful first edition of Bulfinch's "Legends of Charlemagne" illustrated by N. C. Wyeth. No illustrator of the golden age had a wider influence on the world of art than Wyeth. His son, Andrew Wyeth became a reknowned fine artist, and many of his other children and grandchildren became artists and musicians as well.

Wyeth studied under illustrator Howard Pyle, and quickly made a name for himself. His first published art was a cover for the Saturday Evening Post, a plum job right off the bat. In his early days, he was known as a Western artist. He travelled West to soak up the landscape. The trip resulted in a portfolio of images of Indians that vividly capture the light and spirit of the Old West.

Wyeth is best known for his book illustrations though. In 1911, he painted 16 color plates for Scribner's edition of Stevenson's "Treasure Island". It remains the classic version of the book. Wyeth was incredibly prolific over the next decade or so, "Treasure Island" was followed by "Kidnapped", "The Black Arrow", "The Boy's King Arthur" and many more. The book we are presenting today was published in 1924 by David McKay. It displays Wyeth at the top of his form. Even the endpapers are beautiful!












If you enjoyed this post, see... Maxfield Parrish's Arabian Nights, Frank Reynolds Paints Pickwick, John Bauer's Bland Tomtar Och Troll, Edmund Dulac's Tanglewood Tales and Gustaf Tenggren's Wonderbook

I'll be back with more great stuff later this week.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

1.23.09
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Illustration: Einar Norelius and John Bauer's Bland Tomtar Och Troll (1944/49)

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for more jaw dropping images from classic illustrated books.



Today we scanned more illustrations from the Swedish Christmas annual, Bland Tomtar Och Troll. (For links to posts with more from this series, see the end of this article.) The Bauer illustrations are reprinted from the 1919 and 1909 editions in the series. The Norelius images show how his style evolved over the years. By 1949, he had perfected a direct, dreamlike style (some of the images look similar to Magritte) which perfectly suits the timelessness of the fairy tale subjects. Here are more examples of the genius ofJohn Bauer and Einar Norelius- the 1944 and 1949 editions of Bland Tomtar Och Troll...

JOHN BAUER








EINAR NORELIUS












See also... Einar Norelius' Bland Tomtar Och Troll (1934). Einar Norelius' Bland Tomtar Och Troll 1929, John Bauer's Bland Tomtar Och Troll (1917), and Gustaf Tenggren's Grimm's Fairy Tales Part One and Part Two.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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Illustration: Einar Norelius' Bland Tomtar Och Troll (1934)

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for more jaw dropping images from classic illustrated books.



I didn't intend to do another posting on this subject so soon, but today's post is taking a bit longer than I expected. (For Ren & Stimpy fans, it will be worth the wait!) Check back again on Thursday.

Recently, we featured illustrations from the Swedish Christmas annual, Bland Tomtar Och Troll. (Einar Norelius' Bland Tomtar Och Troll (1929) and John Bauer's Bland Tomtar Och Troll 1917) The artists on this series were John Bauer, Gustaf Tenggren, and Einar Norelius.

Here are more examples of the genius of Einar Norelius- the 1934 edition of Bland Tomtar Och Troll...















Is it just me, or do some of these characters seem to be perfectly designed for use as stop motion puppets? If you have any information on Einar Norelius, please let us know about it in the comments below.

See also... Einar Norelius' Bland Tomtar Och Troll 1929, John Bauer's Bland Tomtar Och Troll (1917), and Gustaf Tenggren's Grimm's Fairy Tales Part One and Part Two.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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Illustration: Einar Norelius' Bland Tomtar Och Troll (1929)

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for more jaw dropping images from classic illustrated books.



A few weeks ago, we featured the work of John Bauer from the Swedish Christmas annual, Bland Tomtar Och Troll. After Bauer's premature death in a shipwreck, Gustaf Tenggren took over the series. A few years later, Tenggren relocated to America and the job was passed on to Einar Norelius.

I first heard of Norelius on P-E Fronning's blog, Martin Klasch. After seeing the beautiful illustrations from Jim, Jock and Jumbo that Fronning posted to his Flickr page, I went searching for books Norelius had illustrated. I found a batch of various vintages of Bland Tomtar Och Troll with an online bookseller in Sweden and had them shipped to me sight unseen. I wasn't disappointed. Here is the first of several posts on the work of Einar Norelius, this time featuring illustrations from the 1929 edition of Bland Tomtar Och Troll...















If you have any information on Einar Norelius, please let us know about it in the comments below.

See also... Einar Norelius' Bland Tomtar Och Troll (1934), John Bauer's Bland Tomtar Och Troll (1917), Gustaf Tenggren's Grimm's Fairy Tales Part One and Part Two, Arthur Rackham's Grimm's Fairy Tales Part One and Part Two, and Kay Nielsen's East of the Sun and West of the Moon and Hansel & Gretel.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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Illustration: John Bauer's Bland Tomtar Och Troll

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for more jaw dropping images from classic illustrated books.


Like many of the artists we feature here on this blog, John Bauer is a name that not many people know. His career was relatively short, but his influence was far reaching.

Born in 1882 in Sweden, Bauer studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts. In 1904, he illustrated his first book, Lappland, but in 1907 he began work on a series of Christmas annuals that would make him famous. Bland Tomtar Och Troll (Among Trolls and Elves) is a Swedish tradition, beginning in 1907 and continuing to this very day. I'm afraid I don't speak Swedish, so I can't speak for the folk tales Bauer is illustrating, but the illustrations are stunning.

Bauer had a way with trolls... they are grotesque, yet appealing. The simple, yet elegant compositions conveyed the essence of the image clearly with a sense of humor that both children and adults could understand. His style influenced generations of artists from Gustaf Tenggren (who took over the Bland Tomtar Och Troll series after Bauer's death in a shipwreck in 1918), Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac and Kay Nielsen to Brian Froud and Jim Henson (The Dark Crystal). This particular edition of Bland Tomtar Och Troll is from 1915, but the images are timeless.













MORE BY JOHN BAUER







Very little information on Bauer exists outside of his native country of Sweden. There is a museum dedicated to his work in the city where he was born. If you have any information on this great artist, please let us know about it in the comments below.

See also.. Einar Norelius' Bland Tomtar Och Troll 1929, Einar Norelius' Bland Tomtar Och Troll (1934)

To see Bauer's influence on contemporary illustrators, see... Gustaf Tenggren's Grimm's Fairy Tales, Arthur Rackham's Grimm's Fairy Tales, and Kay Nielsen's East of the Sun and West of the Moon and Hansel & Gretel.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

10.20.08
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Media: Three More Early Tenggren Books

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 6 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about golden age illustration.

Today, we digitized the illustrations from three more early books by Gustaf Tenggren. Tenggren was a key concept artist on Snow White and Pinocchio, and it's clear that the Disney artists looked to his work for inspiration in establishing the Disney feature style.

As we scan more books, we are able to find interesting parallels. For instance, it's interesting to compare Tenggren's approach to Hawthorne's "Tanglewood Tales" to Dulac's highly stylized version.


And a similar comparison between Tenggren's approach to a battle scene and the way Kay Nielsen handled the same subject in East of the Sun, West of the Moon.


We can also compare Tenggren's early "Juan And Juanita" to his treatment of an almost identical subject in a totally different style in the Golden Book, "The Little Trapper".


We can also see similarities to Tenggren's contemporary book, Small Fry And The Winged Horse.


As our database fills out, more and more interesting comparisons and relationships like this will become apparent. That's one of the most exciting things about the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project. The information has always existed, but gathering it all together in one place, and making it searchable will add a level of understanding that has never been possible before. Stay tuned. It will get even better!

Here then, are three more books by the great artist, Gustaf Tenggren...




















For more incredible illustration by Gustaf Tenggren, see... Tenggren's Tell It Again Book Part One and Part Two, D'Aulnoy Fairy Tales and The Good Dog Book, Tenggren's Grimms Fairy Tales Part One and Part Two, Heidi, Wonderbook and Juan & Juanita, and Sing For Christmas.

See also... Einar Norelius' Bland Tomtar Och Troll 1929 and 1934, John Bauer's Bland Tomtar Och Troll 1917, More Norelius and Bauer, Arthur Rackham's Grimm's Fairy Tales Part One and Part Two, Kay Nielsen's East of the Sun and West of the Moon and Hansel & Gretel, Dulac's H.C. Andersen Part One and Part Two.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

7.2.08
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Media: Dulac's Hans Christian Andersen

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 6 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about golden age illustration.


The invention of chromolithography at the end of the 19th century opened up a new world for book illustrators. It was no longer necessary for illustrators to limit the number of colors and focus on high contrast line work. The printing press was now capable of reproducing oil paintings and watercolors with all of the richness of the original artwork. This resulted in an explosion of illustrated books around the turn of the century, and made superstars of the artists who created them.


One of the most striking aspects of vintage book illustrations is the use of color. In our memory, our impression of these beautiful images is made up of rich and vibrant hues, but if we analyze the way color is actually being used, we realize that the color harmonies are very subtle, with small brilliant accents used to direct the eye, and careful attention to the rendering of form, texture and lighting effects.


Art is all about beautiful contrasts, and so is the use of color... warm colors against cool colors, light ones against dark ones, large areas of color against small ones... Edmund Dulac was a master at juggling these contrasts to create a pleasing color scheme from a muted palette. Some of the pictures in today's post are almost monochromatic, with a variety of shades and shapes defining the image. Others have a variety of hues all around the same value. Dulac is constantly varying the way he handles the lighting and color to convey the feeling of the story.


Collecting golden age illustrated children's books can be a difficult and frustrating process. It's hard to know just how many color plates a book should have. First editions might have had thirty or more color plates; but with each subsequent reprinting, the number might have been reduced to twenty, twelve, eight or four. Modern reissues might contain all of the plates, but the color balance and detail in the reproduction is usually nothing like the original. First editions are always the best, but they can be very costly, selling for as much as a thousand dollars or more for a volume in good condition. For the past twenty years, I've been collecting these books... on a budget. I look for damaged bindings or torn text pages that will reduce the value. As long as the illustrations are all present and in good condition, I don't care how beat up the rest of the book is.


For a long time, I've been wanting to get ahold of an original printing of Edmund Dulac's most famous book, Andersen's Fairy Tales. However, the cost of first editions with all 28 plates was prohibitive. The other day I was searching through abebooks.com and with some clever search terms, I discovered that there was a German printing of Andersen's Fairy Tales that contained all of the plates I was looking for. Since it was in German, the price was a fraction of what an English or American first edition would cost. Needless to say, I didn't hesitate! Here are the scans...

























See also... Milo Winter's Aesop For Children, Lorioux's Fables De La Fontaine Part One and Part Two, Felix Lorioux's Tom Thumb, Puss in Boots, Fables De La Fontaine Part One and Part Two, Le Buffon des Enfants, Mabel Lucie Attwell's Peter Pan and Wendy, Einar Norelius' Bland Tomtar Och Troll 1929 and 1934, John Bauer's Bland Tomtar Och Troll 1917, More Norelius and Bauer, Arthur Rackham's Grimm's Fairy Tales Part One and Part Two, Kay Nielsen's East of the Sun and West of the Moon and Hansel & Gretel, Little Verses Part One and Part Two, and Rojankovsky's Frog Went A-Courtin'.

If you have an interest in golden age illustrators like Dulac, Rackham and Nielsen, you will want to browse the galleries at nocloo.com. The webmaster, Minh Lai has digitized a wide range of books, and has generously provided high resolution scans to the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive for inclusion in our database. Visit nocloo.com, and come by the archive on Tuesdays and Thursdays to browse the media database.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

6.24.08
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Media: More Fun Mexican Lobby Cards

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 6 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about golden age illustration.


Previously, I posted galleries of images of lobby cards by the master Mexican caricaturist Ernesto Garcia Cabral. ( Gallery One / Gallery Two ) Today, I'm presenting a group of images from a variety of science fiction, horror and adventure films released in Mexico. In many cases, these cards are a lot more entertaining than the movies they're advertising. Every one of them makes me curious to see what the movie is all about, which shows that the lobby card is doing its job. It's a shame that lobby cards have gone the way of the dodo in this age of cinema multiplexes and mall theaters.

But that isn't all that seems to have been lost. Check out how these images exude the essence of the fantastic. Science fiction movies today are generally ugly and mundane compared to these crazy creatures and bizarre locales. Instead of cramped, cluttered shoeboxes flying through space, rocket ships should be streamlined and beautiful. The future should be strange and alien, not urban and post-apocalyptic. Creatures should be shocking and otherworldly too. Movies today could use a double dose of fun.













And here's a batch of miscellaneous cards that use cartoons to sell a wide variety of films...


















For more wonderful Mexican lobby Cards, see The Greatest Cartoonist You Never Heard Of Before Part One and Part Two.

See also... Mid 30s Colliers Illustrations, Mid 30s Advertisements, Wartime Colliers, Late 40s Colliers, Lawson Wood: The Monkey Artist, Casey Strikes Out In Coronet, Bugs Bunny in Coronet Magazine December 1945, Milton Caniff in Coronet Magazine

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

6.18.08
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