Welcome to Sherwood

In an age before what is now known as "gaming".... before The Lord of the Rings had hit the big screen in any form, there were a different set of mythic heroes. They are still around, but they don't command the stage they way they did in a time before role-playing, blu-ray, and the "six-book series"...

Books that were read over and over, stories told for generations, were some of the tales that got the royal treatment when it came to illustrated editions that appeared near the turn of the last century. One such story that has always grabbed my attention is that of Robin Hood. I've always enjoyed that period in history, and that particular story. Many 1900 era publishers saw the appeal to the tale as well, and many saw fit to add it to their list at one point or another.
Of my illustration collections that Dover Publications has published, most are thematic by artist, but some are compiled by subject. The first of these was Illustrations of Poe, and the Arabian Nights illustrations were particularly well received. There are a half a dozen or so such titles now, but Robin Hood didn't grab the publisher's interest. I've collected quite a few editions, and thought it could be of some value to share them here on VIEW. Comparing how different artists look at the same story helps you find distinctions, that may help your own illustration or just enjoy one group more than another.

Some of my favorites—Walter Crane (top) near the end of his career, did Robin Hood in 1912. H.J. Ford (second) did his as part of The Book of Romance, in 1902. Howard Pyle's version (third) is full of premier quality line work, and was rewritten by Pyle as well, "to better suit the modern reader". Pyle's version is still reprinted today, and is often the version chosen for text when someone else throws their hat into the "Robin Hood Illustrated" ring.

An unusual arrangement took place between Frank Schoonover (fifth) and Louis Rhead, (fourth) where for a decade or so, books were produced with Rhead's line work, and a color Schoonover cover plate—even though Rhead got occasional color interior work. N. C. Wyeth's oil paintings (sixth) are among some of his best works for Scribner's Classics, and Frank Godwin's brilliant color plates from his 1923 edition (last) almost seem to mark the end of the era. (and these are just the tip of the iceberg...)

Fine Lines and Solid Blacks, V. III.

If you've followed this blog for some time, you know I'm a big fan of the work of British illustrator H. J. Ford. In conversation with a friend recently , we were discussing that appreciation, when he brought up John D. Batten. (1860-1932). I'd been aware of Batten, but I hadn't really explored his work until this came up.

At times in their careers, the works of Batten and Ford might have been nearly indistinguishable. Primarily line artists, both Batten and Ford often relied on intricate frames to surround their scenes, sometimes with a hand-written caption. Both worked in mythology and fairy stories—and both formed partnerships with writer/historians that explored fairy tales, and made minor heroes out of the illustrators to generations of children. The Batten/Joseph Jacobs partnership thrived throughout the 1890s, when they produced six books— English Fairy Tales, Celtic Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, More Celtic Fairy Tales, Indian Fairy Tales, and The Book of Wonder Voyages. Indian Fairy Tales, in particular, yielded some great pieces of ink work. The last three here are from that book—"The Demon with the Matted Hair" is a fantastic piece of creature design. Tusks and a beak. During my undergrad work, long ago, I did a large ink piece with a complex Celtic frame—which I realize now, was modeled after Batten's style.

--------

My first semester teaching History of Illustration and Animation has wrapped up, and I hope to invest more time in the blog again to help it happen more regularly. Have a great holiday.

The H. J. Ford poster...

As promised to my "Lucky 13"...you know who you are... I'm excited about the new H.J. Ford project, and I selected an image that showed up here on VIEW a few weeks ago to show just how much intensity still exists in these 100 year old ink drawings... Here's the poster, formatted to 11x17, though posted here as a hi-res jpg. See what you can do with it. And a very Merry to you all.

Jeff

The Beginnings of Modern Fantasy: H. J. Ford

This entry comes as a bit of a preview. Come next February, I have a title slated to release on Ford—Maidens, Monsters, and Heroes, The Fantasy Art of H. J. Ford.
I've given his work a look or two in relation to a given subject, (There is a nice color plate on mermaids, from a few weeks ago) but I haven't really focused in on him yet, so now is the time. What I cannot understand about Henry Justice Ford's (1860-1941) work, is how much it is overlooked. There is a ton of it out there, much of it still in print today. While Ford did some beautiful watercolor work, I find his best moments are rendered in ink. He had an understanding of contrast and placement that seems to nearly vanish from his color work. Ford's career didn't really spark until 1890, when he first collaborated with Andrew Lang on The Blue Fairy Book. This was the first in a set of fairy tale collections that he worked on with
Lang; originally with other artists as well, but once they got it down, Ford and Lang became a powerful tandem with successes that few artist/writer teams enjoy. There were 12 Fairy books, and all sorts of other anthology collections as well. Hundreds and hundreds of illustrations.

One thing I have really taken note of as I've leafed through many of the Ford editions, is that he really had a handle on the idea of a dragon—especially for the time. I cannot recall seeing other images of dragons as early as 1905, that still have the characteristics we place on them today. If Ford were working today, he would definitely be in the fantasy market—Ford's dragons hold up remarkably well, design-wise. I can't help but think that factors like wing design, head shape, and claws all still carry some of the look that Ford was using a century ago, and I imagine that most writers of Fantasy in the last hundred years, were influenced in some way by the Fairy books put out by Lang and Ford. I thought I'd share a bit of what I mean by that with these images, from the score of years that Ford was most active, from 1900-1920.

———
Top to Bottom-
St. George. Who takes on drawing a dragon from the back? I have to imagine he spent some time looking at some sort of lizard in a zoo, and that was the angle he got.

Beowulf. Holy cow. What a crazy wonderful piece.

A Danish Raid in Britain. In 1916 Ford took on a series of "historical" works for a school book. He must have had some luxury of time, or maybe he took the subject more seriously—these pieces are far more developed than his earlier color works, and full of details that usually only survive in his ink work.

The Giants shadow. One of my very favorite Ford inks. There is a whole story going on here, if you just take the time to look. The Giant(s) shadow, with his hand on the far left. Low in the composition is the fair damsel, standing in the rocks...and is that a prince hiding under the horse? Nice storytelling. I love the way the shape of the piece makes your eyes travel to read it.

___Next week, I'll have some images from my new title on Willy Pogány, hitting the stores any day now!

Mermaids and Other Inhabitants of the Deep

2009, Dover Publications. Here is my latest collection on a theme, due out any day now—
There is an incredibly sensual draw that compels one towards mer-imagery. Take the things that modern psychology would say about water visuals, compound that with beckoning forms of scantily-clad maidens, and you have the major ingredients to lure many viewers into a painting....
The components lend themselves well to the tastes of the visual artist—The seascape is one of the most practiced and best-sold landscape subjects, while the nude-form is champion on many artistic levels. At some point in their career, almost every Golden-Age artist has done a mermaid. John William Waterhouse did a few, and he did some of the best-known and most revered. Howard Pyle's last (and unfinished) major work—sitting on the easel at the time of his death, was his mermaid. H.J. Ford, Rackham and Dulac did many of them, both color and line.

For quite some time I considered a collection of this material too narrow to attain, even though interest in the subject is great. Then I started collecting work for Andersen's Fairy Tales for an unrelated project. I began to find that almost every artist who would do Andersen's Tales, had a field day imagining "The Little Mermaid". I looked into tales like Undine, Peter Pan, and Midsummer Night's Dream, and uncovered more and more mer-imagery. I had some solid images that anchored the project tucked to the side, and marked up whatever I could find to be scanned. With a big hand from Christina at Dover, the layout came together, and I'm very pleased with the book. And then I found those images I had tucked away. Oh well... , that happens sometimes.

Top to bottom are some choice ones-

H. J. Ford from the Orange Fairy Book
Herbert Cole's Sphynx-like Mercreature
A rare Kelpie Illustration from Warwick Goble
A beautiful group of scales and tails by Walter Crane

Back soon—and good luck to all heading out to Gen Con (Gaming Convention) in Indianapolis in the next week or so. Looking forward to your reports.

Jeff

Get Your Little People in Line

This week I have a new book that hit the Dover Site. This is a CD-ROM and Book collection; called Imps, Elves, Fairies and Goblins. For those of you unfamiliar with what exactly this is, I'll give you a short explanation—Dover publishes hundreds of books, that have an accompanying CD in the inside back cover. These "CD-ROM- Books" contain royalty-free images, everything from vintage fruit crate labels, to Victorian fashion photography, to, well, Imps, Elves, Fairies and Goblins. An average disc might contain 200 or more images, for use on whatever you can think of. The book gives you easy reference, and the disc gives you the convenience of having a digital file without having to scan the clip-art. Most of the work in this line of books comes from the public-domain, meaning that original copyrights have expired, leaving these images free to whoever wants to reproduce them.

The V I E W interest in this title is that the images in Imps, Elves, Fairies and Goblins are all from books from as early as Daniel Maclise's pieces, probably from the 1850's, and on through children's stories, folk, and fairy tales for the next half century and then some. This collection is all black and white line work, but there are some great drawings and characterizations here that may lead you elsewhere. Here are a few of my favorites:

Reginald (1879-1950)and Horace Knowles- from their edition of Norse Fairy Tales, 1910
H. J. Ford (1860-1940) -He did so much terrific line work—this scene is jammed with great characters—that goblin on the turtle looks as if it could have come straight from a modern fantasy role-playing book—
Walter Crane (1845-1915)-The animation of these figures and the clever design of this chapter head are a real statement to the depth this artist had to offer, far different from the often static scenes he is known for. From his adaptation of Grimm.
Laurence Housman, (1865-1959)— I cannot put my finger on what makes this guys work so compelling- something about the flow of his compositions—really outstanding stuff. It has been documented that he gave up illustration due to failing eyesight, understandable when you study his line work... These works are from his rendition of Rossetti's Goblin Market, which Dover published for years, though sadly, no more.

.....
In illustration today-
I wanted to comment that though I look deep into illustration's past here, I am an active and practicing illustrator currently— and thought I would share this with others of similar situation-
longtime friend and fellow illustrator Jeremy McHugh and his buddies at http://ninjamountain.blogspot.com/ have put together an informative and entertaining podcast on the trials and tribulations of the profession today- with special regard to the fantasy and sci-fi markets, they cover everything from references to techniques; dealing with contracts, and book reviews. It has become weekly listening both in studio and on occaisional commutes.

See ya next week. Jeff