Tuesday 28 January 2014

"R. Caldecott's Collection Of Pictures & Songs" Illustrated By Randolph Caldercott, Engraved and Printed By E. Evans (published by Frederick Warne And Co., London and New York, date unknown) Part 2

 

This story is called "The Babes In The Wood" and it really is quite scary! The babes do actually die from starvation so no happy end in this one. The drawing skills of the artist and the colouring are so impressive though. His lines are drawn with such sensitivity and confidence that you think the people are about to move. Even the birds and animals are so expressive, adding to the mood of the story. Even though the book is almost falling apart (making it really difficult to scan) the pages and illustrations are in a very good condition and as vibrant as they would have been when new.






Sunday 26 January 2014

"R. Caldecott's Collection Of Pictures & Songs" Illustrated By Randolph Caldercott, Engraved and Printed By E. Evans (published by Frederick Warne And Co., London and New York, date unknown) Part 1

 

This book is a collection of several songs and stories illustrated by Randolph Caldecott (1846-1886). He would have been quite famous at the time of publication of this volume as his name is part of the title! He was a prolific illustrator working in Manchester from a very young age and eventually moving to London. He was a contemporary of Kate Greenaway (1846-1901) and Walter Crane (1845-1915), two very important artists/writers of children's books. Despite dying young, at the age of forty, he left a huge legacy in the field of illustration. His work was greatly admired by Paul Gauguin and Vincent Van Gogh among others while he went on to influence 20th century children's illustrators like Maurice Sendak! These three pictures are from a verse called: "The Queen Of Hearts"  Here's the Wikipedia link for Randolph Caldecott's biography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randolph_Caldecott
 

 

Thursday 23 January 2014

"The Giant Jam Sandwich" Story & Pictures by John Vernon Lord, Verses by Janet Burroway (First published by Jonathan Cape Ltd in 1972, this edition by Piper Books, Pan Books, London 1988), Part 3

 

Not only this book is a great treat for any young child but it's a perfect example of  pictures and text complementing each other. Janet Burroway's rhyming verse is so concise, while full humorous dialogues and descriptions. It sets the pace for the story, creating anticipation for what's to come in the next page, while always in line with the pictures - so effective! A complete contrast with many contemporary children's books that rely so heavily on gimmicks, but have such poor content.
 
John Vernon Lord's illustrations are a treasure to any illustrator.The characters in the book are so well observed they could each tell a story in their own right. Their clothes, postures, expressions make me laugh each time I look at the book and always remind me of characters from TV shows of that era! Here is a very interesting lecture given by the artist on this particular book (a link from Wikipedia): http://www.fulltable.com/VTS/g/gjs/g.htm
 

 

Monday 20 January 2014

"The Giant Jam Sandwich" Story & Pictures by John Vernon Lord, Verses by Janet Burroway (First published by Jonathan Cape Ltd in 1972, this edition by Piper Books, Pan Books, London 1988), Part 2

 

This is the amazing story of a small town plagued by wasps, which causes the inhabitants to come up with a very creative plan to get rid of them! They bake a giant loaf of bread in order to make a giant jam sandwich in order to attract and capture all the wasps into it! One can spend hours looking at the wonderful characters created by John Vernon Lord (born in Glossop, Derbyshire, 1939)! The amount of work, talent and imagination that's gone into this book is unbelievable. No wonder it has never been out of print since it was first published in 1972! A classic children's book.
 
Here is a link for the artist's biography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Vernon_Lord And here is a link for his own beautiful blog, full of his work and personal notes by the artist: http://johnvernonlord.blogspot.co.uk/