Mervyn Peake : Writer and Illustrator

Mervyn Peake (1911-1968), most famous for his Gormenghast Trilogy, was also a fantastic illustrator. This year is his centenary, celebrated by his son through a series of publications as well as events. All his characters are so clearly defined that they become part of the mental images you have when reading the book.

Irma from the Trilogy

Swelter from the Trilogy

The best thing to come out of this (in my opinion) is his publication of Peake's works with their original sketches and illustrations. I always wonder why it's so 'not done' to have adult fiction with accompanying illustrations. For some reasons it's left solely to children's books, the odd chapter heading and reference books. However, here for once it is being changed.

The new book available for pre-order here

Another addition to my summer reading list will be Peake's Progress also available for pre-order here.
All the illustrations, which have never been published before, will be in the new books! Through the main website and the blog you can see various events, mostly based in London or Chichester, where there is the opportunity to see the originals. I have added a few to my 'Events' tab above!

Life In Death

The Ancient Mariner

Peake also did countless other illustrations: Alice in Wonderland, Nonsense Poetry, some Dickens, war art, etc. I really want to see his war art exhibition at the National Archives this summer when it starts. 

Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland

Websites for further interest:

Official website: http://www.mervynpeake.org/

Blog: http://mervynpeake.blogspot.com/

Just seen ANOTHER book I want!! (I'm not being sponsored I promise!!!)

Looks like I'll be seeing a lot of Mervyn Peake this year...!

Jeannie Phan: Artist, Website and Blog

I mentioned Jeannie Phan in my post on Zines available here.
She is a Vietnamese-Canadian artist (sorry for getting that wrong first-time!) based in Toronto. Her website is really beautiful and well-thought through - I really recommend having a look. This is her home page which I took a screen-shot of:

JeanniePhan.com

She has an online sketchbook, a portfolio of work, a shop where you can buy zines for as little as $2.99 and a blog which details her entire process of what she does. 

It's a virus zine (2010)

I'm actually going to do a blog on art boxes as it is a form they have always held a fascination for me. I was one of those children that loved making pop-up books, secret compartments and anything contained in their own worlds. Phan's clear and original style is clearly imprinted on this one:

Paper Myra (2006)

I love her blog. She shows you techniques on little video clips which are done in a sort of arty-slapdash way which I really like. I think she must be a student as she's trying out all sorts of different techniques, mediums etc but her own personal style really does come through. 

I'm really tempted by all the things she has in her shop, especially one of the zines... 

Mock book cover for Hans Christian Andersen: Fairy Tales

I think your work is wonderful! Keep up the good work Jeannie!

Alice in Wonderland: John Tenniel

I saw a program, The Beauty of Books, on the BBC the other day and it looked at illustration in nineteenth century England. One programme discussed two of my great loves:

• Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (or Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) 1865
• Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake (1947-1959)

At this the whole pack rose up...

Both of the authors did original illustrations for the books which are available in the British Library in London. I will do another blog post for Mervyn Peake as there is so much to say: he's such a wonderful writer and illustrator and his son (I believe) is publishing a series of his work with Peake's original illustrations. So another time for that. 

Twinkle twinkle little bat! How I wonder what your at!

Alice in Wonderland
So many illustrators have tackled this children's story: I can't remember the exact number it's one of the most illustrated books. I'm going to have to be absolutely honest and say that I've never seen any that are more than average when compared to JOHN TENNIEL's illustrations for the first edition. The are immediately recognizable.

The cat only grinned when it saw Alice

If you google John Tenniel there are a lot of tattoos on the back shoulder of the above illustration! That's a serious fan base... 
I think he was so effective because not only was he a very capable artist, but he had worked for Punch. For those that don't know, Punch was a British comic publication started in 1841. Tenniel worked for Punch as one of the main political cartoonists. In his illustrations you can see this with the emphasized features and personal jokes. 

They were standing under a tree

For interested collectors the original plates were found and 250 impressions made of each which you can but at the link below. As a collector of illustrations I'm definitely going to mark that down on my "Items of Desire" List. (Yes, I do have one!)

In the programme the presenter speculated how the ape, which can be seen above right, was a personal joke of Tenniel's. A joke surrounding all the discussion about Darwin in the period, alongside the extinction of the Dodo. 

Some links: 

Tenniel prints for sale : http://www.johntenniel.com/

Wikipedia link : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tenniel

Political illustrations: http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/tenniel/political1.html

If you know any more links or interesting info about Tenniel I'd love to hear!

The Zine: What and how to

I made my first 'zine' the other day and thought I should share this relatively new phenomenon with those who have yet to experience the fun.

Officially it is an abbreviation of 'fanzine' and is a self-made, small-scale publication. You could put anything in yours: poetry, cartoon, drawing, short story etc etc. It's very popular (as far as I can gage from online probing) with music, anarchy, political, sexual orientations etc etc

http://www.jeanniephan.com/ (Very cool with photographs of her whole process)

In researching for this post I found out there is a London Zine Symposium 2011. For those interested, it's 12-6pm, Sunday 17th April at The Rag Factory, Heneage Street, London E1 5LJ with free entry. Actually there are loads... just scroll to the bottom of http://www.londonzinesymposium.org.uk/ to see some international ones as well. 

"Same Shit Different Day" Erik Brunetti

A 'Burger Zine' from http://design-fetish.blogspot.com/

Here is the youtube video I used to help make my first with just an A4 piece of paper.

If you have a zine, or follow any great zine-designers please share!

Illustrated Journals...

My own journal writing usually lasts a few days/weeks before I get bored or frustrated and chuck it in a drawer with half the book empty. When I was ill once, a few years ago, I ordered a couple of books by Danny Gregory. Now, I have to say I find him quite annoying; there is a kind of superiority of tone that he expresses because he and his family all gallivant off to the country with journals in hand. I also think, for all the practice, he's not that great as an artist. Perhaps I'm being unfair. There are some very good aspects to what he preaches, one being, that drawing things as you go through life does make you look and remember that much better.

Taken from his blog, see link

I bought "An Illustrated Life" which compiles the journals of various writers and illustrators. This is quite fun to flick through, if a little bit samey - there is not a lot of variation. The other one I got was "The Creative Licence" which is where I did get slightly irritated with Mr D.G.

Link: Danny Gregory's books

I also got one by Dan Price called "How to Make A Journal of Your Life". Now, this one may have been interesting but the quality of the book was so poor (and I mean terrible) that it fell apart when I first opened it. Every page came loose. 

I'm not so sure what I think about journaling really. Perhaps it's because the two I've mentioned upload theirs to make a living. Does that make it a bit soulless? Perhaps not. Everyone has to make a living. I also find that artists like Gregory tend to draw just for the sake of it without any thought or purpose. This then verges on the mundane. 

However, I think that when I have a little bit of time (this summer perhaps) I shall start journaling again just to get some ideas down and improve my sketching skills. We shall see. 

Do you know of any other illustrated journal writers? And, what do you think of it?