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Archive for the ‘illustration’ Category

Tuesday, March 26th, 2024

Illustration: Lawson Wood- The Monkey Painter

Lawson Wood is one of the most unusual artists of the golden age of magazine illustration, largely because of the subject he chose to illustrate- monkeys… well, to be scientifically accurate, most of them are apes, but to a cartoonist, a monkey is a monkey.

Wood was born in London in 1878 to a family already well outfitted with artists. He developed his skills swiftly, and by age 18 he was a published illustrator. By the early years of the 20th century, he was established as an artist adept at both "straight" subjects and humorous fantasy. His images of cave men and dinosaurs were particularly popular in England, but the paintings that brought him fame in America were his monkeys…

This album was brought to us to digitize by archive supporter, Mike Fontanelli, and it gives you a good idea of how much Wood got out of his silly subject matter. Wood’s Gran’pop Monkey and friends graced the cover of many issues of Colliers, and there was even talk of adapting the characters to star in a series of animated cartoons. Ub Iwerks was slated to produce the series, but the outbreak of war and the closing of Iwerks’ studio nipped the idea in the bud. However, Wood understood the value of merchandising early on; he even headed up his own toy manufacturing firm, and he died a very wealthy man in 1957.

Some people can’t get past the "kitsch factor" of Wood’s illustrations. But even those who hate his work have to grudgingly admit that he had wonderful painting technique. Love him or hate him, here is Lawson Wood…

Mike Fontanelli recently brought by a big stack of vintage Colliers magazines with Wood covers for us to scan as well. Check these babies out!

The other day, I was surfing blogs and I came across a post that popped my eyes on Will Finn’s blog, Small Room. It featured scans of a fabulous Wartime era calendar by Wood from Will’s collection. I dropped him a note and he generously brought it by for us to scan. Here are a few samples…

There are more images from this great calendar in Will’s article on Lawson Wood. If you haven’t bookmarked Will’s page yet, you should. Where else are you going to find inspiration and insight like the stuff on Will Finn’s Small Room?

For more info, see Bud Plant’s terrific Lawson Wood Bio. Many thanks to Will Finn and Mike Fontanelli for their generous support of this project.

Stephen Worth
Director
Animation Resources

This posting is part of a series of articles comprising an online exhibit spotlighting Illustration.

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Posted in illustration, lawson wood, monkeys | Comments Off on Illustration: Lawson Wood- The Monkey Painter

Wednesday, December 20th, 2023

Illustration: Tenggren’s Sing For Christmas

Around 1940, Gustaf Tenggren left the Disney Studios a changed man. It’s said that he gathered together the paintings he had created up to that point, piled them up in the street and set fire to them. With this single decisive act, he marked a turning point in his artistic career. He never painted in the classic European book illustrator style again. He had resolved himself to create a new style.

I really don’t know what brought him to that point. I’d love to know the full story. But you can clearly see the sharp dividing line between old and new in his work. In the first few years of the 1940s, Tenggren struggled to develop a new way of painting- a simplified style that depended on fundamental qualities like skillful composition, expressive texture and unique color harmonies, rather than photo-realistic detail and modeling techniques derived from classical easel painting. This book, along with its sequel Sing For America and the schoolbook reader Runaway Home would lead to the creation of the very first Little Golden Books… The Pokey Little Puppy, The Tawny Scrawny Lion and The Saggy Baggy Elephant. You know the rest of the story…

This book is far from representing Tenggren’s best work, but it’s an important example of a decisive turning point in Tenggren’s career. I’ll post some illustrations from Sing For America and Runaway Home soon.

All of us at Animation Resources wish you and yours the happiest of holidays.

Stephen Worth
Director
Animation Resources

This posting is part of a series of articles comprising an online exhibit spotlighting Illustration.

Posted in christmas, illustration, tenggren | Comments Off on Illustration: Tenggren’s Sing For Christmas

Tuesday, September 19th, 2023

Illustration: Fantastic Mexican Lobby Cards

Previously, I posted galleries of images of lobby cards by the master Mexican caricaturist Ernesto Garcia Cabral. Today, I’m presenting a group of images from a variety of science fiction, horror and adventure films released in Mexico. In many cases, these cards are a lot more entertaining than the movies they’re advertising. Every one of them makes me curious to see what the movie is all about, which shows that the lobby card is doing its job. It’s a shame that lobby cards have gone the way of the dodo in this age of cinema multiplexes and mall theaters.

But that isn’t all that seems to have been lost. Check out how these images exude the essence of the fantastic. Science fiction movies today are generally ugly and mundane compared to these crazy creatures and bizarre locales. Instead of cramped, cluttered shoeboxes flying through space, rocket ships should be streamlined and beautiful. The future should be strange and alien, not urban and post-apocalyptic. Creatures should be shocking and otherworldly too. Movies today could use a double dose of fun.