Eric Carle

Eric Carle - American Children's book writer and illustrator

He is widely known for his beautiful books on 'The very hungry Caterpillar', 'The mixed up Chameleon', 'The artist who painted a blue Horse', and many many more. I think he is an incrediable collagist, the images he produces are just breath taking. 

Eric Carle is a massive influence throughout my work and has impacted a lot throughout the progress of illustrating my animals. The textures and marks represented throughout his images are so free and innocent there just lovely.  

Here are some images of his work for his children's book 'The very hungry Caterpillar'; 

I love this Book I have this book to read and to inspire me when I feel I might be at a loose end, his work just lifts my spirits up, especially when I share his books with my 7 year old sister she loves them and the imagination she has when creating characters is fantastic. 

Here are some more Images of his work; 

Quote: "With many of my books I attempt to bridge the gap between the home and school. To me home represents , or should represent; warmth, security, toys, holding hands, being held. School is a strange and new place for a child. Will it be a happy place? There are new people, a teacher, classmates - will they be friendly?
I believe the passage from home to school is the second biggest trauma of childhood; the first is, of course, is being born. Indeed, in both cases we leave a place of warmth and protection for one that is unknown. The unknown often brings fear with it. In my books I try to counteract this fear, to replace it with a positive message. I believe that children are naturally creative and eager to learn. I want to show them that learning is really both fascinating and fun."


Eric Carle Website

Beatrix Potter

Thinking back to when I was a child I was remembering some of the children's books I used to love and read about which were mostly based on animals. 'Peter rabbit' by Beatrix Potter was one of my favourites as well as 'Fantastic mr fox' by Roald Dahl as I enjoy the playful characters she has produced wearing clothes I thought this was a great element to add to the animals to give them a more sense of personality.

Peter Rabbit was based around her lovely real pet rabbit that she called 'Peter' and this is when she started to sketch rabbits however adding the feature of jackets or any other clothing.

Here are some images of her work from 1902;

She has also done lots of sketches for the feel of a sense of place of what surrounds the characters what is in the environment, this is what I am currently focusing on throughout my own project as it is based on animals I am also looking at plants, flowers, leaves, trees, grass etc working with different materials which will hopefully give me the outcome I want. 

Charley Harper is an American illustrator born 1922, 4th August, I love his work as its inventive and enticing, I find his work so inspirational its just breath taking. His artwork is full of playfulness in the way he has a very different intake in which he observes nature. He sees exciting shapes, colour combinations, patterns, texture, fascinating behaviour, which are all endless possibilities for making interesting pictures.

''I learn as much as I can about the creatures that interest me and they all do. I observe them and find out how they interact with each other also looking upon their environments and ask myself, 'What if?' '' - Charley Harper

Harpers art work is more free and joyful rather than serious and stiff as he believes, that humour makes it easier to encourage change in our attitudes and awareness of environmental concerns.

Here are some images of his work from the Book 'Charley Harper An Illustrated Life'

The media Harper uses are Gouache paints, cutting paper on illustration board, Acrylics

I love his work Phenomenal!

Photos from Manchester Art Gallery!

I had so much fun here I decided to take my own photographs for reference and research!

Butterflies

Antalopes

An Albatross Bird

Wild Sheep

Swan

 These animals are alive!

Oriental fire bellied toads

Chameleon

Tiny Orange frogs

Two Lizards

Fire bellied toad floating

Very small lizard

Zak Doodle

Zak doodle is a children's illustrator from Greece, I love her work the compositions she creates are very sophisticated, especially with the use of line that is represented exploring the weight and heaviness of the line produced by ink or pencil. Bringing that child innocence and naive essence together, as when we get older we tend to lose this. 

These are my favourite by her. 

The characters are so playful!