Here’s Ignatius Thistlewhite and his school chums from The Year Without a Santa Claus. Phyllis McGinley wrote the story in the 1950s, so I liked the idea of keeping it set in that time.
Most people, when they think of that era associate it with early rock ‘n’ roll, greasers, big cars with fins, malt shops—the image cultivated by movies and tv like Grease, Happy Days, Hair Spray, American Graffiti & Back To The Future. I was born in the 1950s and started school in the early 60s, so I saw that time through a child’s eyes. I wore the clothes I put on Ignatius: a red fur cap with ear flaps and red plaid woolen pants. I didn’t wear a necktie as Ignatius wears in the sketches; art director Anahid Hamparian showed good sense when she asked me to lose it.
The classroom is how I remember Allen Road Elementary School under the tutelage of Mrs Gurney, Miss Yaeger, Mrs. Bowen, Mrs. Haskins, Miss Nugent & Miss Corey (the art teacher)—I know I’ve left out some names.
The b&w photo of the school teacher with the bangs shows a costume and hairstyle that are probably closer to the 40s, but she just looks so much like the teachers I remember. In the same shot is the back of a kid’s head that I found useful.
The perspective in my classroom illustration is clearly—what’s the word?—nuts. The kids in the foreground would need to be standing in a hole. But I wanted them down that low so that Ignatius could be that high. I think the composition works, and that’s what’s important. So there.
https://www.johnmanders.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/JohnManderslogo300w1-300x58.jpg00johnmandershttps://www.johnmanders.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/JohnManderslogo300w1-300x58.jpgjohnmanders2010-12-30 10:23:582010-12-30 10:23:58Mid-century school kids
Two scenes from The Year Without a Santa Claus—both show Santa in a neutral or cool-colored environment. The bedroom is gray; the snowy night is gray and blue. Close by Santa, however, is a warm orangey-yellow light source.
This is an old trick. If you look at classic Nativity paintings (you may have one handy on a Christmas card), the artist will keep everything in the barn dark and/or neutral while the manger throws off warm light, illuminating Mary and Joseph. The viewer will be attracted to the light source, where the artist wants you to look.
It’s not easy for children’s book illustrators to make backgrounds as dark as we would like, because often text needs to print over the background.
https://www.johnmanders.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/JohnManderslogo300w1-300x58.jpg00johnmandershttps://www.johnmanders.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/JohnManderslogo300w1-300x58.jpgjohnmanders2010-12-29 10:00:212010-12-29 10:00:21Warm light in a cool environment
Mid-century school kids
book promotion, illustration processHere’s Ignatius Thistlewhite and his school chums from The Year Without a Santa Claus. Phyllis McGinley wrote the story in the 1950s, so I liked the idea of keeping it set in that time.
Most people, when they think of that era associate it with early rock ‘n’ roll, greasers, big cars with fins, malt shops—the image cultivated by movies and tv like Grease, Happy Days, Hair Spray, American Graffiti & Back To The Future. I was born in the 1950s and started school in the early 60s, so I saw that time through a child’s eyes. I wore the clothes I put on Ignatius: a red fur cap with ear flaps and red plaid woolen pants. I didn’t wear a necktie as Ignatius wears in the sketches; art director Anahid Hamparian showed good sense when she asked me to lose it.
The classroom is how I remember Allen Road Elementary School under the tutelage of Mrs Gurney, Miss Yaeger, Mrs. Bowen, Mrs. Haskins, Miss Nugent & Miss Corey (the art teacher)—I know I’ve left out some names.
The b&w photo of the school teacher with the bangs shows a costume and hairstyle that are probably closer to the 40s, but she just looks so much like the teachers I remember. In the same shot is the back of a kid’s head that I found useful.
The perspective in my classroom illustration is clearly—what’s the word?—nuts. The kids in the foreground would need to be standing in a hole. But I wanted them down that low so that Ignatius could be that high. I think the composition works, and that’s what’s important. So there.
7-Imp 2010 roundup
UncategorizedOne of my favorite kid-lit blogs, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, has a retrospective of all their posts for this year.
You will be humbled and inspired.
Warm light in a cool environment
book promotion, illustration processTwo scenes from The Year Without a Santa Claus—both show Santa in a neutral or cool-colored environment. The bedroom is gray; the snowy night is gray and blue. Close by Santa, however, is a warm orangey-yellow light source.
This is an old trick. If you look at classic Nativity paintings (you may have one handy on a Christmas card), the artist will keep everything in the barn dark and/or neutral while the manger throws off warm light, illuminating Mary and Joseph. The viewer will be attracted to the light source, where the artist wants you to look.
It’s not easy for children’s book illustrators to make backgrounds as dark as we would like, because often text needs to print over the background.