Scott Gustafson
Today’s illustrator is Scott Gustafson. His work is beautiful and lush, and he has been in the business for 25 years and has been very prolific. He has produced work for many clients and publishers, such as DreamWorks, Playboy magazine, The Bradford Exchange, Greenwich Workshop, The Saturday Evening Post and Celestial Seasonings.
Scott was born in Marengo, Illinois and now lives in Chicago.
Scott Gustafson (photo from scottgustafson.com)
Scott had dreams of becoming an animator. But when he entered high school, he discovered the artists from the “Golden Age of Illustration,” the great illustrators like Maxfield Parrish, Norman Rockwell and N.C. Wyeth. So his passions (luckily for us) shifted to beautiful illustrations. I agree. When I went to college, the head of the art department, who was into abstracts with a one-man show of circle canvases with multiple colors of paint dabbed on, thought the Golden Age illustrators were a waste of time. After my sophomore year, I switched to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and was extremely happy I made the switch.
Scott Gustafson continued to dream of animated films, and that led him to major in animation at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. But afterwards, he considered becoming a freelance illustrator.
His illustrations also appear in limited-edition prints and on collector plates, greeting cards, and gift-wrap. His book of Classic Fairy Tales, released in the fall of 2003, has been awarded a Chelsea award by the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists for Classic Fairy Tales and an Independent Publisher Book Award for Best Children’s Picture Book.
He has illustrated a number of children’s books including The Night Before Christmas, Peter Pan, and Nutcracker. Other titles include Animal Orchestra, Alphabet Soup, Classic Fairy Tales and Favorite Nursery Rhymes from Mother Goose. You can see more of Scott Gustafson’s work on Amazon.com.
Check him out – you will be glad you did.
Thanks for reading my blog,
Stephanie Bode
Tomie dePaola
Today’s much loved author/illustrator is Tomie dePaola. He has written and/or illustrated more than 200 books. His stories are as charming as his illustrations. Funny and whimsical. His illustrations are folk art and, unlike many artists, he works in acrylics.
Tomie dePaola was born on September 15, 1934 in Meriden, Connecticut.
Tomie de Paola (Photo credit: SCBWI Blog)
Tomie developed a love for books at an early age; his mother read to him every day. At the age of four, Tomie told everyone that he wanted to write stories and draw pictures for books and to sing and tap dance on the stage when he grew up. I can relate; when I was young, I wanted to be an artist and performer. I was onstage performing the lead in The Queen of Hearts at the tender age of seven.
When Tomie graduated from high school, he went to Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. Lucky man. He studied the classics and eventually developed his own style that includes a generous use of color to his folk art style. Later he received an MFA from the California College of Arts & Crafts.
In 1975, readers were introduced to “Strega Nona: An Original Tale,” dePaola’s most beloved character. He has since written a Strega Nona series. His image began as a doodle during a College faculty meeting attended by a bored dePaola. He said he was toying with the idea of a children’s theater troupe based on the commedia dell’arte and drew Pulcinella, or Punch, with the big nose and chin. Then he added a kerchief and turned the drawing into a little old lady.
He recalled saying, “Isn’t she cute!’ ” and set her aside until a book editor asked him to illustrate a folk tale.
In another book, The Legend of Old Befana, he dedicated it to Colleen Salley. Colleen was an extraordinary woman, author, story teller, and college professor at the University of New Orleans. She taught children’s literature. I once took my children to hear her read The Last Puppy aloud. She had such an engaging voice with a southern drawl. In later years, I was fortunate to call her my friend. In The Princess and the Frog, from Disney Studios, Coleen received a special dedication in this movie and inspired the character Mama Odie.
Tomie has both written and illustrated most of his books. Promoting another book, The Legend of the Blue Bonnett, we met when he was doing a reading and book signing. He is a charming man.
He’s been published for over 40 years. Tomie dePaola is prolific; more than 15 million copies of his books have sold worldwide and have been translated into about 25 languages. He’s still busy: He recently finished illustrating a poetry book for babies and toddlers. I highly recommend adding the following books to your library:
Strega Nona, The Legend of Old Befana, and The Legend of the Blue Bonnett ( a legend about Texas )
You can get some of Tomie dePaola’s books at Amazon, too.
Check him out. Thanks for reading my blog. Happy Holidays!
Stephanie Bode
Bev Doolittle
Today’s outstanding illustrator is Bev Doolittle. Although she doesn’t always illustrate children’s books, her work is stunning and well worth seeing. If you and your child like nature, she is the one to look for. Her perfect illustrations mixed with camouflage as a technique holds you spellbound. She chooses to use camouflage to slow the viewer down to absorb the entire piece.
Often, her themes are of wildlife and Indians. You can appreciate her passion and love of nature; it comes through in her sketches and paintings. As a child, I loved Highlights hidden pictures; Bev’s work will blow your mind.
Art collectors throughout the world buy her work. Her images are sophisticated and filled with intricate visual detail, haunted by presences seen and unseen.
About Bev Doolittle
Bev Doolittle was born on January 10, 1947. She was raised in California. She met her husband, Jay, at art school and they started married life with a painting trip to Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks in Utah.
For the next five years the Doolittles were art directors for an advertising agency in Los Angeles. “It paid well, but we didn’t like living in the city. We wanted to be close to nature,” says Bev.
In 1973, the Doolittle’s took a year-long journey. Traveling throughout the west in a camper, Bev had the bonus of time to develop her unique style.
Her love of nature mixed with her distinctive style and technique created what would become virtually a new genre.
She is often called a “camouflage artist” because her distinguishing use of design and pattern help viewers discern meanings that seem hidden until the images become obvious. “I use camouflage to slow down the storytelling in a painting. But my messages about our wilderness and native peoples are never hidden.” A portion of the proceeds from sales of Bev’s prints is donated anonymously to environmental and other causes each year.
“Earth is beautiful and exciting and I feel blessed that I have been allowed to explore so much of it,” says the gifted artist.
Some of my favorite books are: The Art of Bev Doolittle, New Magic, The Forest Has Eyes, and Reading the Wild.
You can buy her books at Amazon.
Check her out. Thanks for reading my blog.
Stephanie Bode
Jerry Pinkney
Jerry Pinkney is today’s top pick. He is known for his watercolor paintings, created with pencil, colored pencils, and watercolor. His spectacular illustrations are breathtaking. Each one is better than the next.
Jerry Pinkney (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Jerry Pinkney was born in Philadelphia in 1939. He had learning differences; he was dyslexic and had difficulties with reading and spelling, despite graduating from elementary school with honors. As early as the first grade, Jerry became known as the class artist. I can relate. I was also known as the class artist of my grade school. I drew in colored chalk on the blackboard at Christmastime. My theme was Santa and his reindeer flying over the town.
Also, I can relate to his learning differences. In third grade, I realized that I couldn’t comprehend and retain paragraphs of information.
As a young person, Jerry found ways of hiding his difficulties. He was very good at it, as are many bright students with learning differences. He found creative ways to participate in classroom instructions. I did the same thing, in grade school, for book reports; I read the Classic Comics series instead of reading the novels because I knew that I would not be able to comprehend a whole novel. Bright students with learning differences learn to compensate.
Pinkney began illustrating children’s picture books in 1964, and by 2000 had illustrated more than 100 picture books.
Like some other male artists I have chosen, he also illustrated several books written by his wife, Gloria.
Jerry has done many kinds of illustrations, from greeting cards to postage stamps; he thinks book illustration is the most exciting creative process of all.
He says, “I drew great satisfaction from making pictures and was acutely aware of how drawing centered my being, enabling me to focus. This creative activity bolstered my self-esteem.” I also relate to this. When I taught bright children with learning differences at a private school in Virginia, I thought it was vital that their self-esteem was boosted by support from me and their peers. I thought of our classroom as an orchestra with all the players being part of the total experience. I always required my students to respect each other and respect their own accomplishments and those of others.
Many of Jerry Pinkney‘s books address African American, multicultural, and historical themes
He has been the recipient of many awards and The New York Times “Best Illustrated Books”. His books have been translated into sixteen languages and published in fourteen countries. One of his most beloved books is the 2010 Caldecott Medal winner for his adaptation of one of Aesop’s fables, The Lion and the Mouse. I believe that this is an important book to have in your child’s library.
Check him out! See you soon.
Stephanie Bode.
Maurice Sendak
Author/Illustrator Maurice Sendak is my choice today. He was born on June 10, 1928 in Brooklyn, New York, to Polish-Jewish immigrant parents. Now that I know he was from NYC, I like him even better. Sendak described his childhood as a “terrible situation” due to the murders of members of his extended family in The Holocaust. I believe that his unusual approach to writing and illustrating was influenced by this .
His Life Story
He was a sickly child, in bed often, who started drawing to fill the time. At the age of twelve, he decided to become an illustrator after watching Walt Disney’s film Fantasia.
I can relate to Sendak because, when I was a child, I used to pretend I was sick so I could go into the guest room and have my mother buy me Katy Keene comics.
Maurice studied at the Art Students League. Like many prolific artists, he was multi talented. He worked as an illustrator of comics before getting work as an illustrator of other authors’ books.
Maurice Sendak (Photo Credit: Wikipedia)
In the late 1940s, while working on window displays for New York’s famed toy store F.A.O. Schwarz, Sendak met children’s book editor Ursula Nordstrom. She helped him land his first job illustrating children’s books.
He illustrated more than 80 books written by others. His illustrations are unique with the amount of pen and ink he adds to each picture.
In 1963 he inspired a grateful public with his masterpiece Where the Wild Things Are. “In plain terms, a child is a complicated creature who can drive you crazy,” Sendak said in an interview.
This book offers a tale of tension, action, and fun, with a young boy named Max who wears a wolf suit to bed. Max has been naughty and is sent to bed without any dinner. The real adventure begins with the forest growing and creatures appearing as wild and free. As things begin to happen in his room, creatures appear that are a cross between funny and frightening. A great story has a protagonists, Max acted like a real child, not some idealized version of youth. Maurice said, “I did not want to reduce Max to the trite image of the good little boy that you find in too many books.”
Almost fifty years later, School Library Journal sponsored a survey of readers who chose Where the Wild Things Are as top picture book. I think that every family should have this classic in their family library. Where the Wild Things Are available on Amazon.
Later, he collaborated with Carole King on the musical Really Rosie and has done other work for the stage In the Night Kitchen (1970), this book has often been subjected to censorship for its drawings of a young boy prancing naked through the story.
Sendak was an early member of the National Board of Advisors of the Children’s Television Workshop during the development stages of the Sesame Street television series. He also adapted his book Bumble Ardy into an animated sequence for the series, with Jim Henson as the voice of Bumble Ardy.
Sendak began a second career as a costume and stage designer in the late 1970s, designing operas by Mozart, Prokofiev, Ravel, and Tchaikovsky, among others. He has produced both operas and ballets for television and the stage.
His 1981 book Outside Over There is the story of a girl, Ida, and her sibling jealousy and responsibility. Her father is away and so Ida is left to watch her baby sister, much to her dismay. Her sister is kidnapped by goblins and Ida must go off on a magical adventure to rescue her.
Besides his influence on generations of children and adults, author Maurice Sendak was also a personal mentor to a number of writers. Sendak, who died Tuesday at age 83, told NPR in 2005 that he felt it was his duty to pass on everything he’d learned.
“This big gorilla head that’s stuffed full of experience — I want to give it away before I’m gone,” he said. “I want to give it away to young artists who are as vehement and passionate about their lives and work as I was and am.” Among his mentees was Gregory Maguire, the author of Wicked.
Just like Sendak, that’s how I felt when I started my art school. I wanted to inspire and pass on my knowledge to young people.
Maurice Sendak died on May 8, 2012, at a hospital in Danbury, Connecticut. He illustrated nearly a hundred picture books throughout a career that spanned more than 60 years. The New York Times obituary called Sendak “the most important children’s book artist of the 20th century.”
“Cartooning with Stephanie Bode” YouTube Videos
Here are some videos from a TV series I starred in the 1980s. They are available to view here or on YouTube.com.
I have more videos to come, but are there any art instruction services you would like me to provide? If so, let me know in the comments.
Michael and Kathleen Hague
Today I highly recommend one of my favorite illustrators, Michael Hague. He is also the artist of several bestselling books by his wife, Kathleen. One is Alphabears. I love this book!
His soft, lush and elaborate watercolors are a feast for the eyes . His sophisticated scenes are fantastic. Michael has illustrated more than thirty children’s classics, including editions of Peter Pan, The Wind in the Willows The Wizard of Oz, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Secret Garden.
The skill and thought he puts into every page has earned him a dedicated following and a reputation as one of America’s foremost illustrators of books for children.
As I researched him I learned that we share some similarities.
Growing up, he was greatly influenced by the comics, especially Prince Valiant. I can appreciate this fact because I was greatly influenced by comics. In the funny pages my favorite was Li’l Abner.
Michael Hague was born in Los Angeles on September 8, 1948. His first art lesson was from his mother. My mother was also my first teacher.
Hague has been influenced by a wide variety of artistic styles, ranging from the work of Japanese printmakers Hiroshige and Hokusai. He has been inspired by the turn-of-the-century illustrators Arthur Rackham, N. C. Wyeth and Howard Pyle. I believe that a great illustrator has many famous artist as mentors.
Michael says, “I have always wanted to be a book illustrator. Books are what got me interested in the art field in the first place. I try to infuse my illustrations with the same spirit that the author or the story produced in my imagination. I strive to create something from an empty canvas that becomes a whole ‘other world’ that people can visit for a while and totally believe in. That challenge of bringing a subject to life and making it believable – and that’s what is exciting to me as an artist. It doesn’t matter whether it is a Greek myth or an American legend, my approach is the same, to try and blend fantasy with realism.”
Check him out. See you soon. Thanks for reading my blog. Stephanie Bode
Who Is Katy Keene?
People have asked me, “Who is Katy Keene“? She was a model/actress/singer known as America’s Queen of Pin-Ups and Fashions. She was created by a very talented artist/cartoonist named Bill Woggon. He started the character in 1945 in the Archie comic series. The model and aspiring actress gained such popularity that she was awarded her own comic book, published by Archie from 1949 to 1961.
Katy Keene Comics
The comics were interactive – readers were encouraged to submit original drawings of outfits and accessories for her and her friends to wear, as well as designs for automobiles, homes, interiors, rocket ships, trailers and boats. These designs were used in the comics with credit given to published submissions. Many issues featured paper dolls of Katy and friends. Woggon then credited the young artist and listed their address beneath the image, instantly creating a hugely loyal fan base and Katy Keene community.
Thousands of readers, including prominent designers such as Betsey Johnson and the late Willie Smith, have credited Woggon with inspiring some of their first creative stirrings in fashion Bill Woggon hit on a winning formula
In 1978, Woggon received an unexpected compliment when fashion designer Marilise Flusser at Saks in New York City used oversized copies of comic covers from Katy’s long run as the backdrop in a prominent window display.
He passed away in 2003. He was 92 years old.
I realize now what a great inspiration he was to me. I became a fashion illustrator, went to NYC to acting school, and am a singer.
PictureBook Illustrations 