Children's Illustration: Little Toot

More amazing old illustration! This time it's "Little Toot," by Hardie Gramatky. Toot is the story of a lost little tugboat. (update: so I'm sitting here reading 'The Illusion of Life' all weekend and what do I see? A little picture of a tugboat. And I think - hey, that's like that book...then I read the caption and it turns out Gramatky was a Disney animator.)

"When animator Hardie Gramatky left the Studio and moved to New York his apartment window looked out on the tuboats on the East River. Almost immediately he found a character like those he had animated. He called it Little Toot, sold the story to Walt, then went on to write book after popular book about the adventures of the youthful tugboat." - Illusion of Life, pg. 503

So that explains the amazing color and personality in these paintings. Looking for more 1950's-era illustration? Check out the Flickr group The Retro Kid, started by Ward Jenkins. Retro Kid features illustration from all sorts of thigns from the mid 20th century - album covers, toy packaging, food labels, etc. Also check out Vintage Children's Books, another Flickr group with hundreds of awesome pictures focused solely on books.

Now for the illys!

P.S. Has anyone figured out an easy way to download lots of pictures at once from Flickr? It's such a pain to click on each thumbnail for the larger version, right click, save, etc...Let me know if you have!

Illustration Friday: Reflection

I wasn't going to do an illustration for Illustration Friday this week...until I realized I could use it for thesis visual development too! So here is Suzette, admiring her skinny reflection in a giant serving spoon.

Italian Illustration: Libico Maraja

I was home this weekend and sorting through some old books when I came across one of my favorites - "Alice in Wonderland" illustrated by someone named "Maraja." I finally did a little research and found that the illustrator's full name was Libico Maraja. His work is absolutely stunning. (I seem to be on an Alice kick lately.) These are my favorite Alice illustrations next to Arthur Rackham's...I like Maraja's paintings even more than Mary Blair's beautiful work on the Disney version. My "research" lead me to this site, dedicated to Maraja's work, with many pictures on display as well. Only problem is that the English version doesn't seem to be up and running - any Italians care to enlighten me on this incredible artist's life and work? I think there may have been an animation section on that site as well...would love to know what sort of work he did for films.


I found this edition for a couple bucks at a tag sale about ten years ago. Here are some of my favorite illustrations for you to enjoy:










The publishing info. for this edition is as follows:

"Made and printed in Italy by Fratelli Fabbri Editori, via Abbedessee 40, Milano. For the publishers Grosset & Dunlap, Inc., 1107 Broadway, New York 10, N.Y.

RIP Joe Ranft

Joe Ranft, head of story at Pixar, was killed in an auto accident yesterday. I didn't know him personally, but it's a real shame that such an incredibly talented and dedicated lover of animation had to go at such a young age. Joe played a part in every one of Pixar's incredible successes, as well as The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Lion King, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and many other Disney films. See Cartoon Brew for letters from his friends and co-workers.

Illustration Friday: Wisdom

I'm heading home this weekend for my sister's wedding, and while I'm there I have a bout 50 doctor's appointments, one of them with an oral surgeon. This will be me over Thanksgiving when I have my wisdom teeth ripped out of my face...

Flea Market Find

So I was out and about today and decided to stop at this sketchy flea market thing known as "Super Flea." I have never seen so many mullets and large quantities of questionable goods...except for maybe the flea market down in Niceville, FL. (But at least that was kinda indoors, this was just a parking lot.) There was one guy who had all these old trading cards...not baseball cards but actual fun old trading cards from the 80's. He had Dark Crystal cards (I already own the full set of those) and I got a pack of Gremlins 2 cards and one of Frazetta artwork. He had Harry and the Hendersons cards! Who knew they made those? But the real treat I found for a dollar was an Alice and Wonderland children's book/record. I haven't had a chance to listen to the record, but I will when I go home this weekend maybe. (Usually they're awful though.) The artwork in the book is actually pretty decent though! So I thought I would post a few of my favorite illustrations here, as this is obviously out of print and hopefully no one will sue me for doing so. No artist is listed anywhere in the book. (Disney has a nice way of not crediting many of their workers.)

The colors on this two page spread! And the composition! Very nice.

That last illustration there is very interesting because it features a character NOT in the film, the Jabberwock. Does anyone know if that was an original design for the film that was never used or maybe cut out? Its eyes are totally freakin' me out.

For more kid's records with full audio and artwork, check out the wonderful Kiddie Records Weekly.

Illustration Friday: Empty

This is how I feel lately. Not empty, but the tree on the hill part.