This week, on my bookshelf, I've had a couple books by Marcellus Hall. Who's he? He's an children's book illustrator, an illustrator for periodicals like The New York Times, and a guy who writes colorful letters to his nieces and nephews a whole lot like the ones I write to my grandparents (which is either proof that I'm not weird or proof I have company in my weirdness--not sure which)!
I stumbled across his work a couple weeks ago, spent quite a bit of time perusing his blog (links below, don't worry), and followed that up by seeking out three of his books. Even on a different continent they were easy to find. Everyone Sleeps was my favorite. I liked the illustrations, I liked the story, I liked the characterization in the drawings of the pug.
One thing I enjoy whenever I have exposure to a variety of works by the same artist is asking myself, "What are the things that characterize their style?" In other words, what is it about the artwork that lets you look at it and say, "That's Picasso's? That's Degas'? That's Marcellus Hall's?" In the case of that last name, a frequently-used color is visible in the covers of those books. He stretches figures and objects toward you...for example, if someone is walking toward you, the closest leg might get elongated. Cars seem to "lean" as well.
For a fun project, I attempted a couple of Marcellus Hall-style pictures. Here's one:
If you are look at it and looking at the front cover of those books and scratching your head, I understand completely. It's hard to shed your own style in favor of someone else's. In fact, I think the only place I really succeeded was with the prolific yellow wash and that start and with these trees:
I had fun though. Doing the brushwork outline was my favorite part. I love the variation created by the changes in pressure on the brush and by the variations in how much ink I had in the bristles.
One of the things that made it less Marcellus Hall-style and more Rebecca Trembula-style was the sheer amount of stuff in the picture. Marcellus Hall really simplifies his images. For me...well, you might say the end painting IS simplified. I even left out all the cows!
There you see it. The entire project from start to finish. I started with the idea of doing a wide-angle farmyard scene. But I wanted to include the cottonwood that used to be in the front field when I was growing up...the solitary tree with the gorgeous blue-silver sheen that survived multiple lightning strikes before one finally zapped the life from it. I wanted a tractor a bit like the tractor in The Cow Loves Cookies, but it had to be a John Deere. What can I say? I'm from a John Deere family. A bus too, because I wanted to play with making vehicles "lean." If I was going to have a bus, I needed my horse, Dan, because he would often wait at the end of the driveway for me to get off the bus in the afternoon. If I was going to have my horse, I needed to include the barn which stood for years just like the tree--until it too met a lightning bolt it couldn't withstand. Can you see how the list grew?
LINKS:
I stumbled across his work a couple weeks ago, spent quite a bit of time perusing his blog (links below, don't worry), and followed that up by seeking out three of his books. Even on a different continent they were easy to find. Everyone Sleeps was my favorite. I liked the illustrations, I liked the story, I liked the characterization in the drawings of the pug.
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One thing I enjoy whenever I have exposure to a variety of works by the same artist is asking myself, "What are the things that characterize their style?" In other words, what is it about the artwork that lets you look at it and say, "That's Picasso's? That's Degas'? That's Marcellus Hall's?" In the case of that last name, a frequently-used color is visible in the covers of those books. He stretches figures and objects toward you...for example, if someone is walking toward you, the closest leg might get elongated. Cars seem to "lean" as well.
For a fun project, I attempted a couple of Marcellus Hall-style pictures. Here's one:
If you are look at it and looking at the front cover of those books and scratching your head, I understand completely. It's hard to shed your own style in favor of someone else's. In fact, I think the only place I really succeeded was with the prolific yellow wash and that start and with these trees:
I had fun though. Doing the brushwork outline was my favorite part. I love the variation created by the changes in pressure on the brush and by the variations in how much ink I had in the bristles.
One of the things that made it less Marcellus Hall-style and more Rebecca Trembula-style was the sheer amount of stuff in the picture. Marcellus Hall really simplifies his images. For me...well, you might say the end painting IS simplified. I even left out all the cows!
There you see it. The entire project from start to finish. I started with the idea of doing a wide-angle farmyard scene. But I wanted to include the cottonwood that used to be in the front field when I was growing up...the solitary tree with the gorgeous blue-silver sheen that survived multiple lightning strikes before one finally zapped the life from it. I wanted a tractor a bit like the tractor in The Cow Loves Cookies, but it had to be a John Deere. What can I say? I'm from a John Deere family. A bus too, because I wanted to play with making vehicles "lean." If I was going to have a bus, I needed my horse, Dan, because he would often wait at the end of the driveway for me to get off the bus in the afternoon. If I was going to have my horse, I needed to include the barn which stood for years just like the tree--until it too met a lightning bolt it couldn't withstand. Can you see how the list grew?
LINKS:
- 3 Weeks with a Cat (From Marcellus Hall's blog - a series of cartoons about cat-sitting)
- Steps for an illustration (also from his blog - the link to this was my introduction to his artwork)
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