Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Westside Illustrators Book Club


The Westside Illustrators
& Writers
Schmooze! (not for sissies!)










 
WHEN: Monday evening, February 18, 2013
                        7:00pm to 9:00pm

WHERE: 445 15th Street, Santa Monica CA 90402
the war of art.jpg
Topic 1: "
Schmooze Book Club"        
This month will be a  BOOK CLUB meeting!
W
e will be discussing Steven Pressfield's book,
           "The War of Art"....
       

It is a teeny book with a huge footprint!
Available everywhere...

http://www.amazon.com/War-Art-Through-Creative-Battles/dp/1936891026

If you haven't read it, come anyway... you will still enjoy!

Topic 2
: "Dream Big... Start Small!"
             Continued discussion of our
              strengths
& stretches...                       
          
  with our 'baby steps.'                         


Come prepared to participate, ask questions and be inspired!
Let's enjoy a fun creative evening together
& move forward in our common pursuit

of making a contribution to the world of
children's illustration and literature!
Next meeting ... tentatively March 11, 2013


RSVP???  YES...if you can...    SuzyBlock@gmail.com
                       or.... SoozyEB@aol.com

WHERE??? 445 Fifteenth Street, Santa Monica Ca 90402
xoxo...suzy:-D
cell 818 389 1950



Making Goals!


Shoot, Score, Make that Goal!
SFV- Glendale Illustrators/Writers SCHMOOZE Feb 21 6:30-8pm

'Reassessing Goals For 2013'
Let's talk about last years goals & see how they worked out!
Take a moment to write down your goals... & we'll share!

• Three things that you were proud of from 2012.
• One thing that you would have done differently.
• Three projects that you want to achieve/finish this year
• Three skills/techniques you want to hone.
• One Super Stretch goal for 2013.
also-- Share any ideas for topics you would like to explore in 2013.
If you have a project or illustration you want to share, please bring it along and we will have a few min for sharing. (old books, illus. & fun stuff encouraged)

LOCATION: Once Upon a Time Bookshoppe
2207 Honolulu Avenue, Montrose CA 91020
(next door to Zeke’s)
PHONE NUMBER TO STORE:  (818) 248-9668
If you can't find street parking go through alley, by Black Cow to lot.
RSVP to Jen Swain - animfx@charter.net
(818) 429-6906


Illustrators Bingo Night - mtg in Nov recap

History of Illustrators is super fun... we had Bingo night and learned about many illustrators and fun facts of ea. here are the ones we covered:
 
Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) haunting and dreamlike style has added to the enchantment and fantasy of the children's literature and his imitators are many. Major works of illustration include the children's books Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm (1900), Rip van Winkle (1905), Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906) “The Fairies in Spring”, and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1907). A Midsummer Night's Dream (1908), The Rhinegold, short stories by Edgar Allan Poe, and several fairy tale books.. His works were included in numerous exhibitions, including one at the Louvre in Paris in 1914
 
Theodor Seuss Geisel (March 2, 1904 – September 24, 1991) Dr Seuss was an American writer and cartoonist.

Randolph Caldecott (1846–1886) was a British artist and illustrator, born in Chester. He was the eponym of the Caldecott Medal.
Caldecott transformed the world of children's books in the Victorian era. Children eagerly awaited the two books illustrated by him, priced at a shilling each, which came out each Christmas for eight years.
 
Jessie Willcox Smith (September 6, 1863 - May 3, 1935) was an American illustrator famous for her work in magazines such as Ladies Home Journal and for her illustrations for children's books. The Water Babies, Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, Cinderella….

Palmer Cox was born in Granby, Quebec, Canada in 1840. He studied at Granby Academy and moved to San Francisco in 1863, where he worked as a writer and illustrator for magazines Golden Era and Alta California. From 1875 on, he lived in New York. He illustrated his own books with humorous drawings. Some of his titles are 'Squibs of California, or Everyday Life Illustrated', 'Hans von Pelter's Trip to Gotham', 'That Stanley', 'Queer People with Wings and Stings' and the famous 'The Brownies'. The Brownie characters gained great popularity and were used by George Eastman to promote the widespread use of Kodak's Brownie cameras. The Brownies were merchandised as games, cards, dolls etc., but Palmer Cox never received any money for the use of his comic creations.
 
Helen Beatrix Potter (28 July 1866 – 22 December 1943) was an English author and illustrator, botanist, and conservationist, best known for her children's books, which featured animal characters such as Peter Rabbit. Educated at home by a succession of governesses, she had little opportunity to mix with other children. Even Potter's younger brother, Bertram, was rarely at home; he was sent to boarding school, leaving Beatrix alone with her pet animals. She had frogs and newts, and even a pet bat. Among her pets were two rabbits. Her first rabbit was Benjamin, whom she described as "an impudent, cheeky little thing", while her second was Peter, whom she took everywhere with her, even on the occasional outings, on a little lead. Potter would watch these animals for hours on end, sketching them. Gradually the sketches became better and better, developing her talents from an early age.

Norman Percevel Rockwell (1894 –1978) was a 20th century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States, where Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine over more than four decades. During the First World War, he tried to enlist into the U.S. Navy but was refused entry because, at 6 feet tall and 140 pounds he was eight pounds underweight. To compensate, he spent one night gorging himself on bananas, liquids and donuts, and weighed enough to enlist the next day. However, he was given the role of a military artist and did not see any action during his tour of duty.

William Wallace Denslow (May 5, 1856–March 29, 1915) was an illustrator and caricaturist remembered for his work in collaboration with author L. Frank Baum, especially his illustrations of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
 
Maurice Bernard Sendak (born June 10, 1928) is an American writer and illustrator of children's literature who is best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, published in 1963. Where the Wild Things Are won the 1964 Caldecott Medal. In 1970 he won the Hans Christian Andersen Award for children's book illustration, and in 2003 he shared the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award with Christine Nöstlinger, the first time it was awarded.

Jean de Brunhoff (December 9, 1899 – October 16, 1937) was a French writer and illustrator known for co-creating Babar, which first appeared in 1931. The stories were originally told to their son by his wife Cecile de Brunhoff. After its first appearance, six more titles followed authored by Jean de Burnhoff. Brunhoff died of tuberculosis, at the age of 37. After his death, Hachette bought the printing and publishing rights to the Babar series, and Jean's son, Laurent de Brunhoff, took on his late father's role of illustrating the books.

H.A. Rey. The series was written and drawn by the team of H.A. Rey and Margret Rey, starting in 1941. According to Hans A. Rey's obituary in Sky and Telescope, the couple fled Paris in June 1940 with the "Curious George" manuscript in their luggage. [2][3] A German officer who searched it allowed the couple to pass because he thought it deserved publication,[citation needed] unlikely to happen under Nazi occupation because the Reys were Jewish. At first only Hans A. Rey was credited for the work in order to differentiate the Reys' books from the large number of children's books written by female authors. Later, Hans Rey was credited for the illustrations and Margret Rey for the writing. The Reys produced many other children's books, but the Curious George series was the most popular.

Kate Greenaway (Catherine Greenaway) (London, 1846 - 1901) was a children's book illustrator and writer. Her first book, Under The Window (1879), a collection of simple, perfectly idyllic verses concerning children who endlessly gathered posies, “Polly”, untouched by the Industrial Revolution, was a best-seller. The Kate Greenaway Medal is awarded annually by the UK Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals to an illustrator of children's books. Illus The Pied Piper, The Queen of Pirate Isle, and Rhymes for Children.
 
Walter Crane (1845 - 1915) was an English artist. Born in Liverpool, he was part of the Arts and Crafts movement. He produced paintings, illustrations, children's books, ceramic tiles and other decorative arts. sixpenny toy-books of nursery rhymes, series beginning with The Frog Prince (1874) , Queen Summer (1891), Renascence (1891), and The Sirens Three (1886). “Beauty and the Beast”.
 
Sir John Tenniel (February 28, 1820 – February 25, 1914) was an English illustrator. He drew many topical cartoons and caricatures for Punch in the late 19th century, including the iconic dropping the pilot, but is best remembered today for his illustrations in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.

Tomie A. DePaola (born 1934), is a U.S. author and illustrator of many books for children and adults, including Strega Nona, 26 Fairmount Avenue and Christmas Remembered. His newest book is Tomie dePaola's Front Porch Tales & North Country Whoppers.He is currently working on Brava, Strega Nona, a Magical Pop-up Book with paper engineering by Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart. Publication will be during the fall of 2008.

Johnny Gruelle (1880 - 1938) was an artist, political cartoonist, and writer of children's books. He is best known as the creator of Raggedy Ann. He also provided colour illustrations for a 1914 edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales. His first well known cartooning work was Mr. Twee Deedle which Gruelle created after he beat out 1,500 other entrants in a cartooning contest sponsored in 1911 by The New York Herald. Mr. Twee Deedle was in print from 1911 to 1914. One day, Johnny gave his daughter Marcella a dusty, faceless rag doll found in the attic. Johnny drew a face on the doll and named her Raggedy Ann. Marcella played with the doll so much, Raggedy Ann became like a sister to her. Gruelle wanted other little girls to have such dolls. And the Raggedy Ann doll was born September 7, 1915. Gruelle then created a following series of popular Raggedy Ann books and dolls. “Rapunzel”
 
Edmund Dulac (1882-1953) was a French book illustrator prominent during the so called "Golden Age of Illustration" (the first quarter or so of the twentieth century). Books produced under this arrangement by Dulac include The Arabian Nights (1907), an edition of Shakespeare's The Tempest (1908), of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1909), The Sleeping Beauty and Other Fairy Tales (1910), Stories from Hans Christian Andersen (1911), The Bells and Other Poems by Edgar Allan Poe (1912) and Princess Badoura (1913). During World War I he contributed to relief books, including King Albert's Book, Princess Mary's Gift Book, and, unusually, his own Edmund Dulac's Picture Book for the French Red Cross (1915).” Princess and the Pea”
 

Eric Carle

Born in NY in 1929 to German immigrants, when he was six years old; his mother, homesick for Germany, took the family back to Stuttgart. He was educated there. Eric's father was drafted into the German army in 1939 at the beginning of WWII and was taken prisoner of war by the Soviet Forces when Germany capitulated in the Sping of 1945. He returned home in late 1947, weighing 85 pounds. "When he came back, he was a broken man."  in Eric Carle's own words in a "sick man, psychologically, physically devastated." Eric had been sent to the small town to escape the bombings of Stuttgart. When Eric was 15, the German government conscripted him and other boys of his age to dig trenches on the Siegfried line. And the first day three people were killed a few feet away. And in Stuttgart, our home town, our house was the only one standing. When I say standing, I mean the roof and windows are gone, and the doors. And, well, there you are." Always homesick for America, Eric dreamed of returning one day to the US. so he moved to NYC in 1952 with only $40 to his name. Once there, he landed a job as a graphic designer for NY Times. He was drafted into the U.S. Army during the Korean War and stationed in Germany with the Second Armored Division and appointed the position of mail clerk.After returning from the service, Carle returned to his old job with The New York Times and later became the art director of an advertising agency.

John Rea Neill (November 12, 1877 - September 13, 1943) primarily known for illustrating more than forty stories set in the Land of OZ, including L. Frank Baum's, Ruth Plumly Thompson's, and three of his own. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, John R. Neill did his first illustration work for the Philadelphia's Central High School newspaper in 1894-95. Neill dropped out of school after one semester because he said, "they have nothing to teach me". He then turned to advertising art for the Wanamaker department store in Philadelphia. He became a staff artist of the Philadelphia North American newspaper, for which he produced features like the comics strip Toyland, illustrations for the serialization of 'The Fate of a Crown' (a book by L. Frank Baum), Children's Stories That Never Grow Old, and the Sunday comics page 'The Little Journeys of Nip and Tuck' with verses by W.R. Bradford (1909–1910). He was first commissioned to illustrate The Marvelous Land of Oz, the second Oz book L. Frank Baum wrote, published in 1904; The Wonderful Wizard of Oz had been illustrated by W. W. Denslow, with whom Baum argued and lost contact afterward. Neill illustrated dozens of books that were not written by Baum. One of the most notable of Neill's non-Baum books was his adaptation of Helen Bannerman's 1899 story, Little Black Sambo. Neill's edition of Little Black Sambo, which was published by Reilly and Britton in 1908, included a short story called "The Story of Topsy from Uncle Tom's Cabin."