Anne McCaffrey passed away yesterday in her home in Ireland at the age of 85. Though Anne authored numerous books, many know her as the grand storyteller of the beloved Dragonrider of Pern series, originally crafted as novellas when they were released in the late 1960′s. Read more
Dragons, trolls, nixies, mermaids, giants and fairies. I could be talking about Spiderwick, Brian Froud & Alan Lee’s Faeries, or perhaps this is (yet another) post on old D&D. But, in fact, I am referring to the collection of twelve colored fairy books collected and translated over 100 years ago by Scottish novelist, Andrew Lang, and illustrated by English inkmaster, Henry Justice Ford. Read more
(In case you missed it, here’s a quick link to Part 1)
Back in August of 2003, as I began work for the fourth Spiderwick book, I started thinking about re-illustrating a classic text after the Spiderwick series was complete. I spoke with my editor at the time, Kevin, and he thought it a good idea – especially given how well my rendition of The Spider & The Fly was received. Read more
As you may have read recently, I’ve uploaded all sorts of activity and coloring pages throughout the site and on my facebook page. This had me thinking about coloring books and the artwork created for these treasured tomes. Read more
For those following this blog, you’ll remember my endless waxing about the many incarnations of Tolkien’s masterpiece, The Hobbit, a couple of months back. Subsequently, I was asked to write up a proper essay for the LA Times about the Maurice Sendak illustrated edition of The Hobbit that never came to be. Read on and see what I discovered…
(Yes, it is Friday, but I am going to file this one under “TD-created Friday Fan Art”)
I’m a bit swept away by the response from last week’s homage to Tolkien’s masterpiece about his miniature hero. Between here, Rivendell and facebook I’ve realized that there are many elves, dwarves and orcs who love Middle Earth as much as I.
So, as a reprise, I thought I’d dig into my Mines of Moria (aka my Art Archive on My External HD) and see what scraps and bits I had floating around in the digital ether from my brief stint as an “Official Cover Painter for Hobbitses”.
What I found right away, (that I’d completely forgotten) was a decent sketch of the great hero, Tuor, as a possible alternative to cover for Unfinished Tales. Clearly, this would have projected a much more epic image for the book jacket, but the coziness of Tolkien’s own hobbit-hole won out. Below is the color study for that.
After the sketch was approved, I donned my fanciest hobbit-made attire and struck a quick pose. As with any photographic reference, no one photo captures all the elements you need, and so several photos were utilized to create a final sketch of Mr. Baggins.
You can check out how it all came together in the final painting posted last week.
Also in my Illustration Mines of Moria, I discovered some pen & ink drawings of D&D (ahem) “halflings” that were done for player-character sheets that I sold back in my gaming-art days. As mentioned before, my halfings were inspired by the hobbits of my childhood, though I also realized there was a bit of Frank Frazetta in there, especially from his “Lord of the Rings” portfolio released in 1975.
Click the image below to marvel at Fraz’ fabulous inkwork.
Have a wondrous weekend My Preciouses and DON’T LEAVE THE PATH.
Every once and awhile I stop blathering about my work and bow down to the many book titles that had a tremendous impact on my developing imagination and ability as a Kid Artist with Big Dreams.
Like most of the literate world, I adored J.R.R. Tolkien’s first foray into Middle-Earth when I read The Hobbit back in middle school. To me, it was an epic tale that I devoured like a hungry troll in between my games of Dungeons & Dragons and Adventure on my Atari 2600. My reality as a pimply lollipop-headed geek disappeared each time I slipped on the ring, opened my dog-eared tome, and plunged into the wilderwood of hobbits, elves, dwarves and dragons.
What I didn’t grasp then, is that the copy I read contained drawings by that Gandalf of great storytelling himself. I adored Tolkien’s decorative, almost Kay Nielsen-esque, images of Hobbiton, the Trolls and the mighty Smaug.
Tolkien’s images were further brought to life in the 1977 made-for-TV animated film adaptation done by none other than the holiday-celebrated-stop-motion messiahs, Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass.
The Rankin & Bass rendition of The Hobbit not only galvanized my neverending storybook love of all of Middle Earth, it took it to new heights with its Arthur Rackhamy watercolor backgrounds, somewhat-grotesque character designs and sinister songs.
Here’s a couple of scans from the book adaptation of the film. (Click for a larger view)
Yes, to some this version may not hold up, but I feel that this adaptation of the story lured in a new generation of young hobbits ready for more adventures. And the nostalgia for the Rankin & Bass film absolutely affected my drawing style as can be seen by this 1997 cover to Dragon magazine.
After I graduated art school, I came across Michael Kaluta’s outstanding work done for the 1994 Tolkien Calendar. A calendar!? This phenomenal work should have been put in a leather bound re-illustrated book of its own! Sigh…someday.
I still fondly remember spending a rainy afternoon in Michael’s cramped-n-cozy toy-filled studio in the Upper West Side and begging him to pull out the originals for this which he reluctantly obliged. As I looked through these ink-and-watercolor masterpieces I was quickly overwhelmed with a wave of inspiration and a caustic dose of artistic ineptitude. To this day, Kaluta’s passionate visions of Middle Earth are the work of true wizardry.
A few years later, I actually got to add a little to the Tolkien universe myself(!) when the art director for Del Rey books rang me up to ask if I’d be interested illustrating a new cover for Tolkien’s Unfinished Tales. (Actually when he called, It was one of the few times in my life where I thought I would pass out on the other end of the telephone).
Needless to say, I put my best hairy hobbit foot forward and strove for a unique pic of Bilbo Baggins reading through Tolkien’s handwritten manuscripts. I am pretty sure the Tolkien estate approved this image, so it was a nice day at the DiTerlizzi shire when copies of this gem arrived on my hobbit hole doorstep.
The impact of Tolkien’s magic world still reverberates with me to this day as I am sure it does with many. I re-read The Hobbit last spring in between drafts of The Search for WondLa to see how he handled the passage of time during the journey. (In fact, the camping scene in Chapter 19 was added after the reading). Lastly, I saw how Tolkien was credited on the title page and borrowed the same wording for mine. Though I have penned several picture books a chapter book, and helped plot Spiderwick, WondLa was the first time I truly felt like an author.
Thanks, John, may you continue to inspire and entertain as you journey to the Undying Lands of the West.
Here is a photo of Tolkien’s original artwork done for the first edition. It is rendered in pencil, black ink, watercolor and white gouache. Houghton Mifflin Books for Children still offers a facsimile edition of this. (Click for a larger view)
Update: This blog feeds into my facebook page where there has also been some great reminisces going on as well. As I mentioned there, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Michael Hague’s rendition or the Brother’s Hildebrandt. In fact, those calendars the Hildebrandt’s did were right up there with the original Star Wars poster in epic awesomeness.
Lastly, I found this wonderful sketch from a proposal by Maurice Sendak done back in 1967. As far as I can gather, he was to meet with Tolkien to discuss an illustrated edition, but suffered a heart attack(!) and the project never came to be…sigh.
Angela and I were in New York City this week and were able to sneak downtown, away from my many meetings with my publisher, to a favorite haunt of mine, Books of Wonder. BoW is a great indy bookstore for several reasons:
1. It is packed with an amazing cross section of the best books in print created for children.
2. It also carries a serious amount of out-of-print and antiquarian books.
3. There’s a cupcake bakery inside the store. You read that right.
I’ve known the owner, Peter, since I started making kid’s books and he’s always been supportive of my work. He and I enjoy a good banter on Golden Age illustrators and some of their lesser known books. One treasure that I was very happy to find on this visit was a second edition of Arthur B. Frost’s Stuff & Nonsense from 1888.
If you don’t know Frost’s work, you should. He was an illustrator, painter and cartoonist. He illustrated for Lewis Carroll and Joel Chandler Harris’ Uncle Remus stories. His action packed images, matched with captions paves the way for sequential art (like comic strips and comic books). And he was an awesome ink master. Check this out:
This is from a short comic in the book called “the Fatal mistake” about a poor cat that eats rat poison. I discovered this sequence back in high school in a library book. I photocopied the images and taped them into my sketchbooks – that’s how far back my love of Frost goes.
I think it is his ability to freeze action, like looking at an animated cel, and caricature at the same time, that blows my mind. There are not many that could, or can, do this (though Peter DeSeve does come to mind).
Though I dedicated the Spiderwick books to Rackham – and he certainly was my main influence, I also looked at a lot of Frost. I like the frenetic ink style and the bony blocky form of the figures. Rackham’s line was calligraphic, elegant even when he was drawing gnarled old oak trees. Frost looked like he was painting with the line…on a half-dozen cups of coffee. Trust me, that’s hard to do.
Here are some larger jpegs to check out – just click them for a bigger view:
Also, it looks like Fanta-Graphic Books might have brought Stuff and Nonsense back in print in 2003. Pick up and copy and be ready to weep – this work is untouchable.
PS – I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that though Frost rocks it, he was active during a not-so-politically correct period of American history. That said, his caricatures of minorities are typical of the period and not nice. There were only a couple images in the entire original edition of Stuff & Nonsense (and I am not sure if the Fanta-Graphics edition pulls them), but I just thought this was worth mentioning. Of course, I don’t endorse such imagery in any way.
