Lisa Marie Brown and Professor Robert Barrett and Visual Arts
The book market has long been the fine art gallery of illustrators. Portraits, landscapes, and characters set in beautiful historical and modern scenes are only a few of the genres that illustrators have explored through the medium of the book cover. Book illustration has a long visual history that has inspired readers for many generations. The flourishing tradition of children’s book illustration began with such artists as Howard Pyle and N.C.Wyeth whose timeless covers for classics, painted in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, are still printed today. This rich heritage gives illustrators a firm foundation from which to build images that will be cherished as classics by future generations.
The wealth of pictures in children’s books has become an important foundation for initiating children into the world of art . Illustrators 1 have a key role in encouraging children to read through creative and interesting illustrations. This art form has represented various directions in style, theme, and medium and it presents a world of opportunity for illustrators to share their talents with an eager and receptive audience.
Children’s books today are a showplace for some of the best artists in the world. These artists have inspired me to pursue a career that combines my love of books with my passion for art.
This grant was completed in conjunction with my Bachelor of Fine Arts project. It consisted of painting a series of book covers for the ‘Little House’ books written by Laura Ingalls Wilder and a research paper studying the book cover market. I chose these books as my focus because they had a lasting impact on my life as a young girl, and I felt they had interesting imagery and stories to illustrate. Throughout the completion of this project I hoped to create a portfolio with a cohesive feel and gain knowledge about the children’s book market and business. I feel that my research of the market and the process of creating these paintings have given me the understanding and experience needed to enter this field. I hope to someday have a part in creating the art for children’s books and be able to contribute to the images that are so much a part of our society and visual heritage.
References
- Schwarcz, Joseph H. Ways of the Illustrator, Visual Communication in Children’s Literature. Chicago: American Library Assoc., 1982.