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Mid-century school kids

Here’s Ignatius Thistlewhite and his school chums from The Year Without a Santa ClausPhyllis 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.

Warm light in a cool environment

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.

Color script for Santa

I’ve written before about color scripts—an idea that animators use to tell a movie’s story with color.  Here again is the color script I created for The Year Without a Santa Claus.  This is a longish book—40 pages instead of the usual 32.  The story starts out with Santa feeling low, follows him as he cancels toy production for the year, jumps to follow Ignatius Thistlewhite (the kid who saves the day), then returns to Santa.

The color script begins and ends with neutrals—black, white and grays.  The section showing the interiors of Santa’s workshop and house boasts warm colors—yellows, oranges, reds.  The section following Ignatius uses a lot of what I think of as 1950s colors—mint green, Naples yellow, dusty rose.

In all the neutrally toned scenes with Santa, he always has a small bit of warm color around him—like the bedside light when he wakes up or the blaze of light coming from his house as Santa takes off on his Christmas Eve ride.

Merry Christmas!

‘For yearly, newly, faithfully, truly, somehow Santa Claus ALWAYS COMES.’

Some seasonal sketches

Some outtakes from The Year Without a Santa Claus—the group of 6 crying kids was whittled down to three; the spots showing kids’ gifts to Santa were cut to make more room; the sleeping boy was replaced with the shot of two kids looking through a window at the blizzard outside.

School for Santas

This is Santa Claus’ busiest week, and since there’s only one Santa, he can’t be everywhere at once.  So what’s up with all the Santas you see in department stores and malls?  Two words: Santa’s helpers.

These guys help out during the Christmas season by dressing as Santa and representing him while the big man’s busy back at the North Pole.  It’s not as easy as it sounds—to be good at it you need training.  Luckily, there is a place Santa’s helpers can go to learn their trade.

My art school chum Charles Bergeman told me about his grandfather, Charles W. Howard who founded the Santa School (click on the book, then on the upper-right corner of the book to turn the pages).  I had no idea this school existed and was so happy to learn about it I had to tell you.

Entering Santa’s workshop

I took a cinematography class when I was a teenager, and one of the movies we studied was  The Bicycle Thieves. A poor man gets a job putting movie posters up around Rome, but his bicycle—without which he can’t put up the posters—is stolen.  The movie follows him as he tries to find the thieves.  In the very last shot, when the man is utterly lost and hopeless, the camera pulls up and back—higher and higher—so we look down on him as he grows smaller and smaller.  That shot delivers an emotional punch you couldn’t get any other way.

I find that camera angles are important when storyboarding a picture book.  Here is Santa Claus entering the workshop; he’s tired, oppressed, overwhelmed and not into the toy-making thing.  I think looking down on him is the best way to tell you how Santa feels at that moment.

Here is the thumbnail sketch, the tight sketch, the color sketch and the finished painting.  Color is another tool for storytelling.  You can see in the color sketch that I created a big oppressive gray-and-black frame to surround and bear down on Santa.  I isolated him by putting him in the door frame.  In spite of the workshop’s warm, happy colors, Santa is in his own small patch of cool blue.

The Year Without a Santa Claus was written in the 1950s so I included some toys from that time—like this Ruthie doll.

And yes, that is a pork-pie hat.

Santa’s sleigh

Reference, thumbnail sketch, tight sketch, final painting.  From The Year Without a Santa Claus—

I didn’t take these photos; they’re from auction sites I found on the web. 

Santa’s eyebrows!

My friend Jerry Russell (whose fantastic work you can see here) observed that in The Year Without a Santa Claus I “made Santa’s eyebrows black, instead. For more expressive impact, I’m guessing.”

It’s true that the darker eyebrows make Santa’s face livelier.  I’ve always loved the interpretation of Santa in old Coca-Cola ads by Haddon Sundblom.  Click on his name to read about his work.  His Santa has those dark eyebrows, in pleasant contrast with the white beard.  Sundblom turned out paintings of Santa from the 30s through the 60s—so I got to see his new work when I was a kid.  You don’t hear his name much, but Sundblom’s work represents the best of the golden age of illustration.

Santa’s bed

Here’s a shot of Santa getting out of bed from The Year Without a Santa Claus.—the thumbnail sketch and the tight sketch.  Luckily I came to my senses and realized that Santa wouldn’t sleep in a four-poster—but a sleigh bed!