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.

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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.

Edmund Dulac's Fairy tale forte

In continuing my previews of the upcoming Calla releases, we are brought to an Edmund Dulac's illustrated edition—The Sleeping Beauty and Other Fairy Tales, retold by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. Quite a while ago, I spent some time on VIEW looking at two of the "edges" of Dulac's range- his more sophisticated works, and the Alphabet book he did early in his career. As a subject, The French fairy tales collected here are much more to the heart of Dulac's work, maybe only Arabian Nights material being more centric. This is considered by most to be among his best works, and with 30 full-page plates, it's hard to not find a few that are really special. Shown here, some of my favorites, from (Top to bottom) The frontispiece, from "The Sleeping Beauty," one from "Bluebeard," where Dulac let his love for Arabian themes come through—Two plates from "Cinderella," which as depicted here have a solidly French approach, and lastly a plate from "Beauty and the Beast," which may be one of Dulac's best-known fairy images.

Dulac was French-born, and likely would have been familiar with some of these tales from his own youth. Regardless of his history with the tale, it is quite evident there was a real passion put into the illustrations, they succeed on so many levels.

There are tales here that nearly all of us are familiar with—mostly due to the saturation our culture has with animated films—but there are also some stories which we may not be as quick to remember and are well worth revisiting. Quiller-Couch was quite an authority on writing and on children's stories in his day, and a solid writer on his own, to boot.

From a different corner of the globe

What most of us are exposed to in illustration is somewhat limited—to artists published in English speaking material—there is a whole world out there, most of which has been publishing books as long as Great Britain and the USA have. Some of "our" best artists will find publication in other languages, and some of the best from other parts of the world occasionally "cross over," and get published here. Ivan Bilibin (1876-1942) Was a Russian-born illustrator, who worked on book illustration all throughout most of his career, though sharing that time with stage design in the latter part.

Bilibin's earliest working years were not spent solely in illustration; other employment would contribute to his direction and design sense for the rest of his life. In 1902 he was working for an office of the Russian Museum, to record folk art in the outer reaches of the country. For two years he was a field agent of sorts, observing and collecting the art that defined the Russian culture. It's easy to see how this permeates his work—Architecture, costume, all aspects of regional design, and its importance, all come through in Bilibin's book illustration. His work from then (and before) to the early 1910's, was largely traditional Russian folk and fairy tales.

My first encounters with his imagery came on notecards, (the top image with the wolf-rider has been haunting my bulletin boards for nearly 3 decades...) and a few years later, in the Time-Life Enchanted World Series, where they published the tale of Baba Yaga in the volume on Wizards and Witches. His work has incredible graphic quality, and is very distinct in its appearance, with flat areas of color in a hard drawn outline, somewhat resembling a complex stained-glass sketch. Relative design elements frame many of his illustrations.

Jim Vadeboncouer's Bilibin Bio