In the world of
illustrations, at the time before the silver and golden age of comics,
1950-1960's are the times I'm talking about! (Nothing about the ice age)
After the harsh
war people were still in high hopes from winning, which lead to many comics being
about superhero’s or heroines as a powerful figure that saves the day.
Illustrators
had gotten the most attention at this moment, thanks to the sudden need for
commercials for those who have extra money in their pockets as well as there
was no need for rationing of non-essentials (things you can live
without).
The TV was
becoming even more popular; movies needed illustrators for poster designs
as well as story boarding (drawing out the story) for animations or just
movies.
Mary
Blair was born October 21, 1911 in Oklahoma but moved to Texas while she was
still small, then moved to California in 1920’s. After graduating from San Jose
State College Mary gained a scholarship to an art institute in Los Angeles, she
had many professional teachers and lecturers such as Morgan Russell. She
graduated in 1933.
She
married an artist named Lee Everett Blair whose brother was an animator,
Preston Blair.
Together
with her husband she joined a watercolour school and was later described as a
imaginative designer.
For her
Careers she started in the animation industry with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer,
eventually moving to her husbands work at UB Iwerks Studio, then to Disney in
1940 and worked briefly on Dumbo and an early version of Lady and The Tramp.
The 1950’s were a busy time for Disney as they were releasing a new movie
nearly every year, and Blair was credited for being the top colorist for such
films as Cinderella 1950, Alice in Wonderland 1951 and Peter Pan 1953. She went
on a few research tours, which were planned trips to certain places to have a
better understanding of what they would be working on as well as releasing any
of the tension of work.
She did
concept designs for Walt Disney for such films as Alice In Wonderland, Peter
Pan and Cinderella, which I will describe as being very fluid and appealing, I
really like the Cinderella concept art of the pumpkin cart being pulled by the
horses through a dark road where they are the brightest things.
After her
death in 1978 at the age of 67, even though she was not that famous she has
been considered the first to bring modernism into Walt Disney’s studio and was
given awarded the Windsor
McCay Award in 1991 after being recognised as a part of the group Disney Legends, a group for all the people that impacted disney in some way.
Though most
interest was focused towards children's books as people were starting to
learn that children won't take on board what they read if it is not fun,
so picture books or shorter sentences were used more for younger or first time
readers. Kid books usually just showed a 2D character with bright colours to
keep the readers interested, backgrounds had to be simple and not take too much
attention from the characters.
Mary Blair also
worked on her own Children’s books, including “I Can Fly” by Ruth Krauss. Her work was usually water colours and had a very flat, 2D feel as well as being very smooth.
Marc Simont Born
November 23, 1915 in paris, but was an American citizen, also illustrated books
for Ruth Krauss, such as “A Good Man And His Good Wife” in 1962 and “The Happy
Day” in 1949 which he was runner up for winning the Caldecott medal. I like his
style because it is fluid like the others I have and will look into but also
because of the texture it gives, the line art looks like it was drawn with pastels,
it was not a smooth line but it was not jagged.
He had a passion for drawing inspired by his
farther, painter Joseph Simont, leading Marc to start to draw at an early age,
he admired his father greatly. Simont moved to New York City in1935 thanks to his fathers encouragement to
attend the National School of Design and served three years in the military.
He illustrated his first children’s book in 1939.
He eventually
won the Randolph Caldecott Medal (an award given to successful children’s
picture book artist) in 1957, but since then he has been runner up for the same
award for his illustration for ‘The Stray Sheep’ in 2002.
Clare
Turlay Newberry born April 10th 1903, was an American Author/
Illustrator of over 10 Children’s books, most famous for her cat drawings which
were not only the main subject in a few of her books but also one of the first
things she started drawing at age 2. She sold her first illustrations to a
children’s magazine ‘John Martin’s Books’ when she was 16.
She studied
a year at University of Oregon in 1921, before moving to the School Of The
Portland Art Museum 1922, once again only for a year, Then moved to California School
Of Fine Arts 1923 but never finished.
Her
ambitions were to become a Portrait painter, but she did not persue(follow her
dream), she instead focused on her cat drawings.
One of her
books, Mittens, is about a boy who tries to find his lost cat.
I love her sketches, they are so smooth and soft in appearance, it almost looks like the fur is real, her passion for cats may be a little worrying but I admire how persistent she has been.
Art Seiden was
an American illustrator born 1924; he graduated from Queens College with a BA
and went on to study for 8 years at Art Students League. When starting his
career in illustrating he did designs for big company advertisements, companies
like Phillip Morris and General Motors.
However
his distinct style was best suited for the world of kids books, it
was also his longest running genre in illustration. One author he frequently
illustrated for was Margaret Wise Brown, books such as “Three Mice And A Rat”
in 1950 and her final book "The Train to Timbuctoo" in 1951.
He illustrated
around 300 children's books, author to and/or illustrator of around 20 books
for almost all major publishers starting with 'My ABC Book' for the wonder
books in 1953, he spending decades working with authors from all around.
Art worked
mainly in watercolours as well as Gouache, which is similar to watercolours
however the colour particles are bigger making the paint thicker, even joining
a group dedicated to watercolours.
Dr. Seuss or
Theodor Seuss Geisel's was born on 2nd March 1904, was and is a very famous
American writer and cartoonist during and after the 1950's! his unique
style is well known even today, I personally like the sketchy and scrunched up
faces.
His grandparents
were German immigrants and his farther used to manage a brewery (a place where
they where they make alcohol!) until the prohibition in the United
States, which made selling or making alcohol illegal (not aloud) which
made his farther go out of business, it lasted from 1920 to 1933 and was even
shown in one of Dr. Seuss' books 'And To Think I Saw It On Mulberry
Street!'
Seuss attended
Dartmouth College, becoming chief editor for the humor magazine club
called Dartmouth's Jack-O-Lantern however he was spotted drinking with his
friends in his room and advised to leave the club and not to take part in
any other extra activities, which he did.
However this
was not the end for him at college, he used a pen name 'Dr. Seuss' so he could
continue to write without getting into trouble.
Dr. Seuss followed Martin Luther King's teachings, which were also named Lutheran’s; he teaches "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere"x which basically means doing wrong wont make something else right. However he had an entirely bias feeling towards Japan in world war 2, agreeing with the American ruling to relocate or imprison every American citizen with Japanese ancestry, 110,000 to 120,00 people were a part of that. During this time he was in Hollywood writing war propaganda to be made into films, he brought his wife Helen to work with him and to give him much needed encouragement throughout this time.
But Dr. Seuss'
opinion changed quickly after the Hiroshima bombing which took 166,000 people
in the first 4 months, this led him to write 'Horton Hears A Who!' as a
metaphor for what happened, the quote "a persons a person no matter how
small “has been used in protests for prolife to this day.
Seuss and Helen
eventually won the 1947 Academy Award for
their children’s books. In
1951 Seuss was a Runner up in the Caldecott Medal awards.
Helen Palmer
Geisel was born September 11, 1899. Sadly when she a child she caught polio
which could lead to loss of movement for muscle, also known as paralysis,
however she made a complete recovery. Her father was an Ophthalmology, which was just a big word for treating
different problems in the eye like certain diseases that can affect them,
however passed away when Helen was 11.
She
graduated (completed) her course at Wellesley College with honors in 1920.
She met Theodor Geisel at
Oxford University and he was 5 years younger than she was, she had a big
influence on him while at university, telling him how he should become an
artist instead of an English professor she said "Ted's notebooks were always filled with these fabulous animals. So I set to work diverting him; Here was a man who could draw such pictures; he should be earning a living doing that." x They later
married in 1927 and had no children themselves, not that
they didn't want to but because Helen could not.
They were in a happy
relationship, Seuss depended on Helen to support him and his work however
eventually Helen began to notice Seuss relationship to someone else grow, which
began to lower her confidence and make her feel down, that including 13 years
of illness' including cancer towards her final days, she wrote a note to
Seuss before having a lot of pills in 1967 at age 68which were usually
used for sedation or anesthesia (numbing pain or
putting someone to sleep before an operation), the pills she took have
been replaced today so to reduce deadly overdose from patients. Her note said"Dear Ted, What has happened to us? I don't know. I feel myself in a spiral, going down down down, into a black hole from which there is no escape, no brightness. And loud in my ears from every side I hear, 'failure, failure, failure...' I love you so much ... I am too old and enmeshed in everything you do and are, that I cannot conceive of life without you ... My going will leave quite a rumor but you can say I was overworked and overwrought. Your reputation with your friends and fans will not be harmed ... Sometimes think of the fun we had all thru the years ." X
Dr. Seuss published his most famous and recognisable book in 1955 "the cat in the hat" after creating
Beginner Books which was a big book publisher for kids aged 3 to 9, along side
his wife Helen Palmer Geisel and Phyllis Cerf. Cerf Wrote out 350 easy to read
words for Seuss to write the book from but he could only use 200 of the words
including around 50 harder 'emergency' words.
Roy McKié born October 8th 1921, was an American
illustrator who worked with beginner books, he also illustrated on of Dr.
Seuss' books 'My book about me!' which was a book kids could write and draw
themselves! With lots of serious or silly questions with yes or no answers as
well as filling in the blanks, Roy was the first person other than Seuss to
illustrate a Dr. Seuss book.
Quentin Blake,
Born 16 December 1932, has always been a reliable and funny illustrator, well
known for illustrating Roald Dahl books, has also illustrated one of Dr. Seuss'
books 'Green Day For Up!' in 1974, this was the second book Dr. Seuss wrote but
did not illustrate (draw) by himself.
