Recommended Imaginaria entry about the superb Italian illustrator Roberto Innocenti
Recently in Illustration Category
Maurice Sendak is widely recognised as an outstanding children's author, but he is more than that. He is an artist whose flair for visual storytelling is almost unmatched today. Jonathan Jones paids tribute in last weekend's Guardian magazine.
Very Highly Recommended, especially for the suggestions of possible influences, from Hogarth to Oldenberg and Runge.
The children's illustrator and author Helen Oxenbury, 69, spent her childhood in a turn-of-the-century house on the Suffolk coast, roller-skating, cycling along the scenic paths and sharing plates of chips...
piece by Ian Beck, in The Times
...most picture books cannot be published for British readers alone--but the international market is less welcoming than it was. Americans are favouring home-grown talent, says Wayne Winstone, who sells children's books, and eastern Europeans and Asians are developing their own distinctive styles of illustration. Michael Rosen blames the obsession with synthetic phonics for reducing children's reading horizons to badly drawn leaflets. For Jane Ray, an illustrator, a "culture of safety" among publishers has much to answer for....
The UK's Best New Illustrators were revealed today by Children's Laureate Michael Rosen at the Children's Book Fair in Bologna.
The final ten represent the best rising talent in the field of illustration today, who demonstrate remarkable creative flair, artistic skill and boundless imagination in their work.
The UK's ten Best New Illustrators are:
Alexis Deacon
Polly Dunbar
Lisa Evans
Emily Gravett
Mini Grey
Oliver Jeffers
David Lucas
Catherine Rayner
Joel Stewart
Vicky White
David Roberts and Sam Lloyd were highly commended.
Shirley Hughes comments:
"The varied talents of these ten new illustrators represent the marvellous vitality of our profession. In an era in which we are bombarded by moving electronic imagery, looking at picture books is not only a vital part of learning to read but offers a lifelong pleasure in itself."
An exhibition of works by the ten Best New Illustrators will run at the Illustration Cupboard, Piccadilly, London from 17 April - 3 May.
Booktrust has launched their Big Picture campaign with the search to find the UK’s Best New Illustrators.
Children’s books by the 27 longlisted illustrators were all first published in the UK after 2000. Ten winners will be chosen from the list by the Big Picture Committee and announced by Michael Rosen at Bologna Children’s Book Fair on 31 March 2008.
The ten Best New Illustrators will participate in promotional activity intended to raise the significance and importance of illustration. Such activity includes collaboration with Rough Guides to produce The Rough Guide to Picture Books which will be published April 2008. The illustrators will be appearing in a range of library, festival and bookshop events and promotions throughout 2008 with the Campaign for Learning and for The Big Draw in October. They will also be involved with Waterstones’ promotional campaign over the summer ‘If you Liked….You’ll Love’ designed to introduce readers to modern illustrators and remind them of much loved classics.
The longlist is:
Deborah Allwright
Laura Carlin
Alexis Deacon
Polly Dunbar
Lisa Evans
Shelley Fowles
Emily Gravett
Mini Grey
Laura Hambleton
Oliver Jeffers
Simone Lia
Sam Lloyd
David Lucas
Sarah Massini
Mei Matsuoka
Sam McCullen
Alice Melvin
Gwen Milward
Catherine Rayner
David Roberts
Viviane Schwarz
Joel Stewart
Il Sung Na
Kanako Usui
Vicky White
Thomas Doherty
Mungo M’Cosh
The Big Picture Judging Committee comprises author and illustrator Anthony Browne, Sunday Times journalist Nicolette Jones, Antonia Byatt, director of literature strategy at Arts Council England, and author Malorie Blackman.
As the Observer's political cartoonist for 13 years, Chris Riddell has chronicled a tumultuous period in history - the reshaping of post-communist Europe, the rise of New Labour, 9/11 and the Iraq war. On the eve of an exhibition of his work, he talks to Phil Hogan about the inspiration and method behind his polemical art, and chooses some of his favourites... ....
The world of Lauren Child, children's author - Telegraph
from last weekend's Telegraph
Amanda Craig reviews two classics, published with new illustrations:
It’s no surprise to learn that Child was inspired by Pippi Longstocking as a child. I still prefer The Secret Garden – it should be on the national curriculum for 8-year-olds instead of the tripe currently recommended; it should certainly be on every child’s bookshelf. Truly difficult children will, I suspect, clamour for Pippi...
