I think that "illustrator" is one of the most beautiful words in the English language. It obviously comes from Latin -- I didn't even have to look that up on Dictionary.com to figure that out. It looks positively Elvish. Anyway, one of my favorite illustrators of children's books is Trina Schart Hyman. I have an edition of Snow White that was illustrated by her, and I found A Walk Out of the World and Marrow of the World, two excellent original YA fantasies written in the seventies by Ruth Nichols, that Hyman also illustrated. I have always wished I could draw like her. Anyway, I have been thinking of fantasy a lot lately (no! really?) and of artwork inspired by such, and remembered this one artist. Other artists I like are Brian Froud, Alan Lee, the Brothers Hildebrandt, Aubrey Beardsley, and Gustave Doré. I also love the Japanese ukiyo-e print-makers, and Chinese and Japanese painting in general. I tend to prefer: realistic painting with a touch of the otherworldly. Blame my parents: my father had a thing for Oriental art too, and Chinese paintings and Japanese vases were all over the house.
Update: Chris reminded me of another fantasy artist whose work I liked, but I didn't know his name: it's Tom Canty. No, Chris, I don't think you're a weenie at all!
Posted by Andrea Harris at January 6, 2003 01:45 AMcall me a weenie, but i like Tom Canty:
http://www.endicott-studio.com/galcnty.html
oh my god! i finished my own ref tag!
i know you're calling me a weenie; i can hear you.
[I took off the a href tag -- Andrea]
Posted by: chris at January 6, 2003 at 10:37 AMi finished it, but it STILL doesn't appear to work. now that is weenie.
Posted by: chris at January 6, 2003 at 10:39 AMOops -- I have html turned off until I get around to adding the script I use to keep people from posting unauthorized code. You can just put the url in without formatting tags, and people can copy and paste.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at January 6, 2003 at 11:29 AMcool. i feel better.
i mean how lame would it be to have messed it up twice? :)
Posted by: chris at January 6, 2003 at 11:44 AMdamn, if i ever get my stuff out of storage, i'll have to scan in a few of his trading cards for you to see.
yes, he has trading cards. i collected the set.
NOW call me weenie!
Posted by: chris at January 6, 2003 at 11:46 AMI like Graeme Base, because he draws things that you have to look at for hours. I also agree with you on the Hildebrand stuff; their illustrations for the original Sword of Shannara were just outstanding.
We brought some peasant paintings back from China; they're really not great art but they are very charming and in startling watercolors; not something you see much these days. And we also have a couple of larger pieces; one in what looks like chalk (landscape from central China; shows those tall pillar-like hills in a grey haze) and another one (medium unknown) that's a more traditional bunch of flowers. Good stuff; cost us about three times as much to get it all framed as we spent on the bare paintings.
Posted by: David Perron at January 6, 2003 at 12:41 PMYou don't, by chance, happen to have a copy of Froud's The World of the Dark Crystal? That's a truly cool book that throws a fascinating backstory onto an otherwise visually stunning but largely incomprehensible movie.
Posted by: David Jaroslav at January 6, 2003 at 06:33 PMNo -- I just have Fairies, the book he did with Alan Lee. Yeah, The Dark Crystal was one weird movie.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at January 6, 2003 at 07:36 PM