Hans de Beer

Hans de Beer is a favourite artist of mine.  He has written and illustrated many books for children.
His very well known ones feature Lars the little Polar bear and his adventures.

I have other books that are beautifully illustrated by him.  He has a muted approach with watercolour and delicate inkwork in his art work. His animal characters always show great empathy without going overboard in the facial expressions.

Ollie the Elephant

Little Polar Bear

Illustration Hans de Beer

Ahoy There Little Polar Bear

Prince Valentino

 All his works are worth looking at for his fine drawing and reading for the amusing and heartwarming stories written by Hans de Beer and other authors.

The Art of Margaret Early

I have two treasured children's books, retold and illustrated by Australian artist, Margaret Early.

The titles are Robin Hood and The Sleeping Beauty.  Margaret does exquisite work.  Each painting is a gem. Her other books in this series include William Tell and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.

All these beautiful books were published by Walter McVitty Books in Australia.  The production is excellent.

Unfortunately, I do believe these books are now out of print so I'll be hanging on to my copies to enjoy with the grandchildren.

Robin Hood

Robin Hood

Robin Hood

The Sleeping Beauty

The Sleeping Beauty

Hu Yong Yi

Good Morning China is a lovely children's book published by Roaring Brook Press in New York.  Hu Yong Yi is the artist who has done beautiful work with the illustrations. 

Each illustration or painting shows children having fun in the park, all busy with their different activities.  It's a very gentle book and I love looking at these serene pictures.

Hu Yong Yi has a website where you can see more of her lyrical paintings.

Some Black and White Illustrations

I've been looking through a lot of my older work of late, scanning and sorting. 

The works below are from a title published way back last century, in 1974.
The title of the book is Tell Me A Tale, stories retold and copyrighted by Jean Chapman and illustrations copyrighted by Deborah and Kilmeny Niland.

It's weird looking at your ownl work again after such a long time.  It was gratifying to see that the originals are so much finer and delicate as compared with the printed version.  As an illustrator you tend to forget that the printed work can be quite dissimilar to the original art.

Printing methods today are so much better which means good quality is more easily achievable in book production.

It's Christmas!

Christmas is a special time of year.  To celebrate, I'm showing a selection of illustrations from different artists. They are all from fun books about Christmas.

Merry Christmas to all!  May next year be filled with good times!

Artist-Deborah Niland

Artist-Deborah Niland

Artist-Fernando Krahn

Artist-John Burningham

Artist-Janet Ahlberg

Artist-Justin Todd

Artist-Kilmeny Niland

Artist-Marc Boulavant

Raymond Briggs

A Favourite Book

I used to love reading this book to my kids when they were little.  They loved it too.

The Fisherman and His Wife is a classic tale and has been illustrated by many artists over the years.  The version I have was illustrated by Mark Southgate in 1987.  It was published by Andersen Press Ltd, London.

Here are some of the quirky pictures from this book. It is still a great favourite.

Maurice Sendak

The illustration and children's book world has lost a major figure with the death of Maurice Sendak.
He influenced the techniques of many, many illustrators over the years and his books have been enjoyed by adults and children alike.

I remember the fuss that was made after the publication in 1963 of  his classic Where the Wild Things Are.

'Experts' in child development were adamant that children would be terrified and have recurring nightmares if shown this book. Nearly fifty years later this book is still popular and I'm sure the nightmares have proved to be non-existent.

The beautiful pictures below by Maurice Sendak are from some of his books I still have on my shelves.

Where The Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak 1963

Where The Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak 1963

Thr Griffon and the Minor Canon - Maurice Sendak 1963

The Bee-Man of Orn - Maurice Sendak 1964

The Bee-Man of Orn - Maurice Sendak 1964

Outside Over There -Maurice Sendak 1981

A Favourite Book

I like to hang on to children's books that have impressed me.

The one I've chosen today, dates from 1971, and is called The Pedlar of Swaffham.  It's written by Kevin Crossley-Holland and illustrated by Margaret Gordon.  It's published by Macmillan.

The story in this book is based on an East Anglican folk tale set in the 15th century.

I love the illustrations!  They are influenced by the style of the woodcut, and are a perfect match for this medieval tale.
Margaret Gordon has illustrated two books similar to this one, The Green Children and The Callow Pit Coffer..
They were also written by Kevin Crossley-Holland

As well as the books I've mentioned, Margaret Gordon illustrated The Wombles written by Elizabeth Beresford.  The famous Wombles of Wimbledon.

More favourite illustrations

The delicate art of Kazuo Iwamura...
Have a look at the delightful illustrations from a range of his children's books.