Another Children's Book Illustrator

Today, I’d like to take a look at the illustrations of Ed Emberley.  I discovered Ed Emberely’s Drawing Book: Make a World (Little, Brown and Company, 1972) when I was a bit older than the book’s intended age target, but I remember being charmed by the multitude of things he drew with just a few simple shapes and lines.  As I have been seeking ways to get people to not be intimidated by drawing, I recently purchased my own copy of Make a World. 

His drawings are in the realm of stick figures, however, he shows how to put lines and shapes together to make many recognizable things.  The animals, buildings and objects show how one can abstract something to a simple form without losing the identity.  Textile artists, think applique or free motion quilting here.  If you can get a copy of Make a World, study it for the breakdown of forms to their bare essentials, then try making your own near-abstract creations of everyday objects.  Draw them, or cut pieces of colored paper.  Isn’t it fun to be a kid again?

Here is a free-motion thread sketch of a train that I did in Emberley’s style.

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I made some changes from Emberley’s instructions, I didn’t like the look of his caboose at all, and my coal car is quite different too.  Had I not been running late with this post, I would have looked at some pictures of real trains to get the images I wanted.  Then, I added color to my quilted train:

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If you want to make your own folk-inspired or applique designs, take a good look at Emberley’s drawings.

Children's Book Illustrators, Again

One of my all-time favorite books as a youngster was Anno’s Journey by Mitsumasa Anno (original U.S. edition, William Collins Publishers, 1978).  As much as I loved to read from an early age, Anno’s Journey has no text, only ink and watercolor landscapes that trace a traveler’s path across Europe of an undetermined historic time.  Anno’s drawings consist of very simple ink outlines, augmented by watercolor wash.  (Take a look at examples here and here.)  They are simple and complex all at the same time.  His buildings are a delight of textures, while his people and animals are outlines unencumbered by shading for depth.  There really isn’t room for too much detail in his figures, as they are very small in his vast land and cityscapes.  The color in his illustrations is typically understated –mostly muted tones.

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My first attempt at a free motion drawing inspired by Anno.

As a child, I missed Anno’s Flea Market (first U.S. edition Philomel Books, 1984), but I have been studying a copy of it, and I think I love it more than the Journey.  Another wordless tale, this flea market unfolds over the pages, set within the walls of a medieval fort/city/castle.  The place and time that this flea market takes place is ambiguous, and the ages of the items don’t give any clues, nor does the dress of the people in the market.  What I find most fascinating in Anno’s drawings of the flea market is the way he ignores perspective and scale to show the viewer all that is happening.  The vendors’ table tops are tilted to nearly vertical so that Anno’s economical line drawings of the items may be viewed.  The items themselves are drawn out of scale; hand tools as tall as the people, garlic bulbs as big as the figures’ heads, and so on.  The skewed scale and perspective really doesn’t matter here, as there is so much going on in his story illustrations.  Here and there, you will find somewhat sinister things going on at this flea market – a man with a trumpet on his head, an artist painting a busty rendition of a flat chested model, and Kermit the Frog makes an unexpected appearance! 

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The same quilted piece from above, with colored pencil added. 

Next time, I would add a stabilizer under the top fabric. 

Colored pencil does not adhere well to stretchy fabric.

What I take as an art quilter from Anno is his use of line, his mastery of storytelling without words, and his inclusion of unexpected surprises.  After looking at these two books, some free motion quilting exercises came to mind.  First, try “drawing” outlines of everyday objects by free motioning.  This is a great way to improve you hand-eye coordination.  Next, try creating a simple line landscape with a building in it.  How can you add texture to the land and structure with stitching?  Finally, what little details could you add to your art that would surprise the viewer?  What can you add that would make the viewer look longer at the piece?  

Considering Children's Book Illustrators

I’ve mentioned before that I have been sporadically completing the exercises in the Art Quilt Workbook by Jane Davila and Elin Waterston (C&T Publishing, 2007).  One on the things that I appreciate about this book is the short list in each chapter of “artists to study” whose works relate to the lesson in the chapter.  The artists are mostly well-known and easily researched names.  No matter what art medium you are exploring, you cannot get away from looking at the work of other artists and learning from them.  Art history constantly builds on what came before.  College art students often get assignments to copy a painting hanging in a museum to learn multiple techniques.  One word of caution, it is always prudent to respect copyright, artists at any level need to be familiar with copyright laws.  Check your local library for a selection of good resources on copyright, and you could always try to wade through the essential source for copyright, the U.S. Copyright Office  

There are other artists to consider aside from the usual suspects of art history.  At my day job, I spent some time recently shelf reading the children’s books.  I have re-discovered some personal childhood favorite illustrators and found some new ones that are worth study for applying to my own art adventures.  Of course, I cannot insert images of these illustrators’ work here, but I encourage you to investigate them further. 

First, consider the collage illustrations of Lois Ehlert (Lots of Spots, Boo to You, etc.) and Eric Carle (Pancakes, Pancakes, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, etc.).  Ehlert creates images from layers of paper shapes accented with cut-outs and tiny paper bits.  Carle creates his collage illustrations from shapes cut out of painted papers, then adds detail with more paint and crayon lines.  If you want to create representational images from fabric using applique, take a look at these two.  The two small quilts below are what I created for the chapter two and three exercises in The Art Quilt Workbook.  These were done before I rediscovered Ehlert and Carle, but they make my point nicely; I certainly could have had the two illustrators in mind when I made the quilts.  The carrots and squash were created by fusing fabric cut into the desired shapes, then detailed with hand or machine stitching, similar to Ehlert’s and Carle’s techniques with paper.

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On a bit of an aside, I highly recommend giving the children in your life a copy of Carle’s Pancakes, Pancakes for the message it contains about what it takes to make something. 

I’ll have something different on Thursday, next week I will look at another illustrator, hopefully with a quilted example that applies what I see in the art.  I’ve got to get busy!