Recently there has been a good bit of ugly online backlash against the casting of actors of color in two films based on iconic tales —-Amazon Prime’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, “ and Disney’s live-action remake of Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Little Mermaid.” These objections are not…
One of the surprising things about working in mixed media —- collaging real and handmade objects and digital manipulations –– is how unexpected the results can be. Digital effects can produce remarkable effects which are also easy to overdo — (the Twirl effect is one ) — in which case they quickly become monotonous — so…
If there’s a Part I, then, naturally, a Part 2 should follow. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to use many different kinds of materials in my illustrated books. It’s very engaging — and it keeps changing. Merriam Webster defines serendipity as “luck that takes the form of finding valuable or pleasant things…
According to Wikipedia, the now-popular phrase, “thinking outside the box” originated in the 1970s and 80s, in the business world. “Lateral” thinking is about approaching a problem from a different angle, one that changes your perspective and may lead to innovation. There are even some exercises to get you thinking this way. Sometimes, though, a…
In a thoughtful and enlightening afterword to her little book, About the Sleeping Beauty, P. L. Travers (best known as the creator of the immortal Mary Poppins), offers this explanation of why she chose to write her own version of that fairy tale: “It was written not at all to improve the story….but…
Hm. Seems as though I’ve had this “sequel” to Part 1 in my drafts for awhile, so maybe it’s time to publish it. Angela Carter (1940-1992) has long been the acknowledged queen of fairy tale revisions, with the publication in 1979 of her mesmerizing collection, The Bloody Chamber. She has done more for the…
Everybody doodles. Artists doodle. When you get an idea, the first thing you might do is just scribble something on a piece of paper — just to get it down. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Many masterpieces of painting, sculpture and architecture started out on a piece of scrap paper. If you’re working out…
“I cut my way first through a foot of snow, and then a foot of ice, and open a window under my feet, where, kneeling to drink, I look down into the quiet parlor of the fishes, pervaded by a softened light as through a window of ground glass, with its bright sanded floor the…
Here’s Merriam Webster’s first definition 1. of “spontaneous “: done or said in a natural and often sudden way and without a lot of thought or planning. Spontaneity is a quality much praised by artists who wish to paint or draw in a way that appears to have been done without effort. But experienced artists…
It always irks me when I hear someone say , “Life is not a fairy tale.“ They are referring, of course, to the standard ‘“happy ending” of so many fairy tales. I’m fairly certain that the people most likely to belittle fairy tales are those who have never read any. Or maybe they are…