Henri's Walk To Paris

Henri's Walk To Paris, Illustrations © 1962, 2012 by Saul Bass and text by Leonore Klein, Universe Publishing, 2012.

A full 50 years later, Bass's only children's book that he illustrated is finally being reissued after being a sort of white whale for many a book collector and designer. I never owned an original printing of the book, but thumbed through a copy of one owned by a good friend of mine. (Is that the equivalent of having a girlfriend in Canada that your friends never seem to meet in person?)


As you might've expected, it's heavy on graphic design brilliance. Bass uses the layout of each spread to evoke a particular mood - whether it's filled with foliage from some unknown source (I can't imagine Bass doing the actual drawings of the trees and bushes in the background here), or with a single sentence.




Bass utilizes repetition a lot in the book to signify the bustling of the city: trees, churches, buses...








But one thing stuck out in my mind as I read through the book several times: there are no people. Well, there are "characters," but Bass doesn't actually depict a real human being aside from a crowd featuring circles with hats, a few well-placed arms and feet, and a couple of cropped legs.


Saul Bass does what he's good at: he simplifies elements to their basic shapes and symbols. What we know to be a little boy is simply an arm and two legs. He allows the story to fill in the blanks when it comes to the true character of Henri.




When he's given the chance to illustrate people in the little town where Henri lives, Bass resorts to depicting them with WORDS! He doesn't even draw them as shapes with features, just letters with hats. To the graphic designer, this would seem to be a brilliant move on the illustrator's part to showcase people in a children's picture book. Bass is calling the shots here. It's as if he's saying to the reader, "I know you know what these people are and what they do. You don't need to see their faces."


And for that, I applaud him. But to be quite frank, the book feels a bit stark because of this fact. Not always, mind you. But for some spreads there's a certain human element missing that I feel is needed. The layouts and text placement are amazing to look at, (and the designer part of me totally geeks out on these particular things), but I felt a certain detachment from some of the spreads. It seems to me that since Bass did not normally draw characters (not his strong suit), he saw this book as a challenge. How was he going to illustrate the story of of boy named Henri and his walk to the busy city of Paris?




Of course, this is the illustrator in me saying all this. As a Bass fan, I WANT to see Bass draw people. I want to see how he would've characterized the titular character, the townspeople, and Henri's parents. However as a Bass fan, there's a part of me that LOVED how he simplified the characters to just words and letters. A fun shortcut, if you will. You can imagine that yes, I'm on the fence with this book, but I'm probably over-thinking it. Okay, I definitely am. But oh, well. The great thing is that now anyone will be able to buy this book to see for themselves, and not just a book collector with $200 in his/her pocket. Universe has done a wonderful job of reissuing the book with rich color printed on nice quality paper stock. They did a great job in matching the colors, I must say. All in all, even with all my qualms about the lack of personality and warmth of Bass's characters, the story itself carries the book for any reader.

Plus, it'll look great on your coffee table.

Buy the book: Henri's Walk To Paris.
I shot more photos of the book. See the entire Flickr set here.

Universe also reissue M. Sasek's This Is... Series. Be sure to pick up the latest: This Is Munich. (I'll do a review of that one soon.)

Valentines Stuff

While I'm still working on this lengthy (oh boy) post about working on children's books, thought I'd share with you some recent stuff I did for a few friends of mine for Valentines Day. (Click on each to view a bit larger in Flickr.)

First one was a commission for my pals Martin & Carrie Gee for their anniversary. They're both really into sharks and rays (well, who isn't?) and Carrie told me that it would be awesome if I could put their 2 cats in the piece somehow. Done! See below:



The second piece I did for my agent Jennifer Laughran. Each year she sends out a Valentines Day postcard to her friends and colleagues and asked me to illustrate this year's card. I was honored! Plus, I'm a sucker for Valentines Day anyway, especially if beatniks are involved:



On a more personal note, I thought I'd give my own Valentine a special message this year. Click here to see just how much love I gots for my woman. ;)

Andrea Brown Holiday Card: Step by Step

I thought for sure I had shared this here, but apparently the craziness of the holidays took its toll on me and I completely forgot. Better now than never, right? Well, I had the wonderful opportunity to illustrate the annual holiday card for the Andrea Brown Literary Agency. My agent, Jennifer, is of course, one of the agents and she asked if I could offer my talents for such an honor. I immediately said yes. Here's a little step-by-step of my process working on the card (click on each to view larger in Flickr):


Here are my first initial ideas put together and presented to the powers that be at the agency. Idea A was too similar to an earlier card that was done several years ago (and I think that I might've remembered my agent mentioning the idea to me and just had it in the back of my mind - by the way, the agency is based out of San Francisco, hence the 'painted lady' reference). Idea B would've been too involved, considering that our time was of the essence at the time (trying to get it out before the holidays, of course!). They went for Idea C, which I thought would work best anyway.


After getting all the reference photos of the agents together and doing some rough sketching in my sketchbook, I then scanned what I thought were the best rendition of each agent and put them together to see how it would all look. As you can see, the background was a separate drawing and I just shifted and moved around the faces until I liked what I saw.


After getting the composition down and all the agents in place, I drew over the rough pencil sketches on my Cintiq a more refined sketch - this was then printed out in greyscale and I drew over that (on my animation disc) the final pencil lines for each of the agents. They are all drawn separately, in order for me to have the freedom of moving them around, just in case.

If you look at the final, you can see that I changed the hair for two of the agents, as they had since changed their hairstyles. No biggie!

And violá! The end result:


I had such a great time working on this card! It's always a pleasure for me to do something Christmas-y or wintry - the ribbon-like lettering was really fun for me to work on as well.

Hope you enjoyed this process post! If you have any questions as to how I work or my thoughts on what I did here, feel free to ask away in the comments.

Merry Christmas

I've posted this several Christmases before and it's always worth posting again: The First Noel, a small Golden Book illustrated by the brilliant husband-wife team of Alice and Martin Provensen, 1959.

You can view the book in its entirety HERE.













Here's to a very Merry Christmas to you and your family.

Peace,
Ward

Peeping Covers

Well, would you look at this! How about a peep at the covers for the two new books that I illustrated for Chronicle Books to be released next May 2012? Yes, you read that right - not one, but TWO new books:


NEW YORK, BABY!


SAN FRANCISCO, BABY!

This is the start of a fun series aimed at the traveling baby and/or toddler - a way of looking at each of these iconic cities through their eyes. I had such a fun time working on these books! Hope you can see my enthusiasm through my artwork.

Check out the first mention of the books by Elizabeth Bird of A Fuse #8 Production on the SLJ blog the other day: Librarian Preview: Chronicle Books (Spring/Summer 2012)

Yay!

New Sketches from New Books

Well, hello there. I'm finally poking my head out from the long sabbatical I've taken to share some sketches with you. Character sketches done for two books that'll be released by Chronicle Books in May 2012. I'm quite happy with the final results - the final designs have some slight changes made to the eyes. The books are the beginning of what we hope will be a continuing series focusing on young kids (toddlers or younger). It's been a long road from start to completion, but the final results I think are wonderful. Very happy with everything (and I just so happened to see the color proofs earlier this week!). So, take a gander! (Click on each to view larger.)

Saul Bass's Henri's Walk to Paris to be reissued in February

Okay, so this is big news to those of us who collect neat old children's books: Universe (the wonderful imprint of Rizzoli who reissue the marvelous "This Is..." series by M. Sasek) are reissuing one of the rarest children's books out there (well, at least in the circles I hang out in): Henri's Walk to Paris by Leonore Klein and illustrated by designer Saul Bass. As far as we know, it's Bass's only venture into children's books, and it's a doozy: incredible, bold colors, with glorious use of type and design. The best way to check out the book is by visiting Grain Edit, from a post in 2007:










(All images via Grain Edit.)

Based on how Universe has printed up the Sasek series, I have no worries in quality and color for Henri's Walk. Looking forward to ordering it come February 2012!

Summer Vinyl Fun

Summer is in full swish here in the great NW! I know that most of the country is getting cooked right now, but here in Portland it's been hanging around the mid-70s to low 80s. Very nice. Anyway, let's put on some cool, fun records, shall we? Yes, let's.


The Firehouse Five plus Two: Good Time Jazz (sometimes listed as "Part Two"). Illustrator listed as "Le Goullon." Even though liner notes say: "During 1950 (when the eight numbers on this LP were recorded)...", I've been told that the LP was probably packaged and released in 1953.


Musicians listed:
Danny Alguire: coronet
Harper Goff: banjo
Ward Kimball: trombone
Clarke Mallery: clarinet
Monte Mountjoy: drums
Ed Penner: tuba
Frank Thomas: piano

The Firehouse Five plus Two was a dixieland jazz band that played around the LA area (and beyond) from the late 40s on into the 70s. The band is of particular interest to us animators mainly because most of the members worked at Disney at the same time - most particularly, Ward Kimball and Frank Thomas, two of Disney's "Nine Old Men." Clark Mallery and Ed Penner also worked there, while Harper Goff was an art designer for several movies (for instance, THE THING).


Big Moments LP, 1955. Cover illustrated by the awesome Gerry Gersten.

The dude is still alive at 84! Did caricatures for MAD Magazine, NY Times, TIME, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, you name it. You can always tell if illustrations like this are done by serious artists or not. Here, I can tell by the way he draws the arms, faces, the details in the clothing, dresses, etc. Very intricate linework that can't be duplicated by anyone with lesser talent. Believe me, I've seen some illustrations (like in vintage cook books) that look pretty pathetic. Here, though, Gerry does some wonderful work that's upbeat and lively.


Stars and Stripes Forever (1954). I know I'm a little late on the July 4th thing, but it's better late than never, right? Very Jim Flora-ish, it's illustrated by Ed Sorel. Interesting to see such a different style than what Ed's usually known for.

And now, to end this post on a good note, an ACTUAL Jim Flora cover! Checkit:


Memorable Music From the Movies (1956). Illustrated by the one, the only Jim Flora.

Sometimes you just never know with these covers, since I've seen many who would rip-off of Flora's work (see this one for example). However, just found out that this is, indeed, a genuine Flora cover. Here's a list of his covers, in case you might have one in your collection. You never know!

Very busy busy

Been very busy lately, working on two books at the same time (a third, even, for a short while!). There's so much I'd love to talk about and share with you, but because of papers signed and so forth, I have to keep my mouth shut until the proper moment. I promise it'll be worth the wait. The late nighters are getting to me, however. Gallons of coffee has been consumed, and I'm only halfway done. Oh, well! In the meantime, I've updated my postcards to pass out, thanks to my awesome agent, Jennifer Laughran. The front features one of my favorite illustrations, Speaking in Color. Here's the back (click on image to see a bit larger in Flickr):



Self promotion is always a tricky thing. A great deal of artists I know hate to do it, or are just too busy to figure out a decent way to do it themselves. I'll be talking about this particular subject, along with a bunch of other things having to do with freelancing, being an artist and illustrator, children's books and publishing, as well as making the transition from full-time to freelance on the blog soon. All of this will be discussed just as soon as I finish up these books and get a few nights of decent sleep. So, stay tuned!

By the way, if you have any questions in regards to what I've mentioned here, or if there's something you'd like to talk about on this blog, drop me a comment or email (see profile page or my website) and I'll bring it up in conversation. Until then, I'll just go ahead and head back down to the basement.

Listener: Wooden Heart

Listener "Wooden Heart" from Nathan Corrona on Vimeo.

A rare opportunity when visuals match the raw tone and spirit of the music and words perfectly. Shot and directed by my brother-in-law Nate. Music by Listener.

Watch it big. It's worth it.

Interviews With the Ward-O-Matic

It's been a nice thing to say that I've been busy lately. Busy a LOT, actually. It's a good thing to be busy, yes. But I didn't plan on having several different things going on at the same time. Multiple deadlines and overlapping schedules are not my speciality. However, I've been able to manage it to a certain degree. It's just that I have to pull a few all-nighters or wake up at 4 in the morning in order to stay on top of things.

In the meantime, I'm happy to say that I've been asked to do a couple of interviews, which is always a good thing in and of itself. Shameless self-promotion, right? Never hurts. Plus, it helps when you dress up in a chicken suit.

Firstly, I was asked by Scrawl Brawl to be interviewed for their podcast Chat With a Brit. You can check out the (yes!) audio interview here: Chat With a Brit #8: Ward Jenkins. Amazing how modern technology is these days: three people conversing via Skype from two separate countries. Good guys, that Blazel (the Brit) and Victor. It was a lot of fun. Thanks for having me, guys!

Secondly, I was interviewed by the folks at Pinterest, the site where you "pin" images and things that you like, similar to an inspiration board. Not unlike a Tumblr, but not like it either, Pinterest sports great design and a clean overall look that's very appealing to me. Occasionally they'll interview some of their "pinners" on their blog, and they approached me right when I was deep in the muck of three projects going on at once. After hitting several deadlines, I finally answered their questions and now you can read the interview here: Interview with Ward Jenkins.

Actually, there'll be more. I know! How awesome is that! Seriously, I'll be interviewed by a few of my favorite blogs that I feel really encapsulate the midcentury vibe as well as the thrifting culture - definitely something that hits close to home for me. I'll be sure to let you guys know about these interviews when they're up as soon as possible.

Before I let you go, here's something I did for the Washington Post (it was one of those deadlines I had to hit last week). I had a lot of fun with this one! Always love the travel stuff. This one was about the resurgence of the travel agent:



Okay! Back into my dungeon and hit these deadlines as they're fast approaching. Will reconnect soon.

CHICKS RUN WILD Photo Essay Contest

How do you RUN WILD? We (as in, the writer and the illustrator of CHICKS RUN WILD) want to know! Teachers and educators, this contest is a chance for your class to go crazy and run wild! Send entries to Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen and you may win!

And if you're not a teacher, send this to one you know! Here's a downloadable version for you:

CHICKS Photo Essay Contest Poster BIG

Mr. Handlebar Mustache

To understand just why I would draw such a character, go to Seven Impossible Things and read up on the Drawing Duel illustrator Dan Santat and I participated in. If you create some snappy captions, there's a chance that you'll win copies of our books, signed even! And Tami Sauer's newest, as well!

The Chicken Suit

Yup. It happened. The chicken suit was acquired and promptly donned on a beautifully grey day in Portland this week. Portlanders, in case you're wondering who that was dressed up as a bright yellow chicken walking across the Burnside bridge or crossing the road (har!) in front of Powell's, or having a Maple Bacon doughnut at Voodoo Donuts, it was me. I'm an illustrator. I drew a children's book titled "Chicks Run Wild," hence the chicken reference. This silly stunt was part of a crazy promotion to get people to know about the book, written by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen.

I have to say, it was a lot of fun. Honestly, I probably would've worn the darn suit even if we didn't get 300 fans or friends on Facebook. But I'm happy to see that we exceeded our goal—a full week before the deadline! That's awesome.

So, here you go, Portland. Here you go Oregon. The United States of America. THE WORLD... Ward Jenkins in a chicken suit:





My Presidential pose.


My Profile pose.


Oh, hey. Look at that. I'm about to cross the road. IMAGINE THAT


Why did I cross the road? To read Chicks Run Wild, of course.


Chicken admirers. Sadly, I wasn't Bieber.


It's hard work, this shameless promotion-thing.


This is my favorite part of the whole book-drawin' experience: reading the book to the kiddos.






I paid a visit to the library to sneak a copy of the book in the bookshelves.


The librarian totally caught me!

More photos soon. To see more check out:

The Chicken Suit on Facebook.
Chicks Run Wild on Flickr.

Now you know, I'm a man of my word.