Picture Book Report
Got some time on your hands? Oh, good.
One of the sites I like to visit each day is the Art Cake, an excellent art blog that posts stuff pretty much daily – today one of the posts featured the work of Meg Hunt, a Portland, Oregon-based illustrator who amongst other things did a series of illustrations of Alice in Wonderland. Hunt’s illustrations are engaging and original – no small task considering how many other extremely well-known illustrators have tackled this book, yet seemingly most turn back to the same approaches and even scenes as the original illustrations by Tenniel.
Drilling down through the links, I found the project Hunt’s illustrations came from – Picture Book Report. 16 illustrators, 21 books, one year. The breadth of the work is truly astonishing and inspiring.
We are launching Picture Book Report as an experiment of sorts– fifteen illustrators creating a new scene from their favorite books every month, posted one per day for three weeks! Think about that– that’s half a month of brand-new content, every month! That’s crazy, and beautiful, and honestly the idea swells me with love and gratitude for all the people involved.
– Meg Hunt, from the first entry on Picture Book Report
OK, Hunt says 15, but I counted 16 in the sidebar.
…There is a certain kind of magic to books and stories that is hard to beat and for that I will always be excited to crack that next book open. At the same time, there’s this stigma against books with pictures, that they’re something you leave behind after you get to a certain age.
The urge to make our own mark upon this format is immense. To give back to that tradition of storytelling and share our own along the way…
Picture Book Report is an extended love-song to books. Fifteen illustrators will reach out to their favorite books and create wonderful pieces of art in response to the text that has moved them, shaped them, or excited them. …Together we will try to excite readers both new and old and capture some of that magic of storytelling.
We hope you enjoy the results of this experiment!
– Meg Hunt, from the “About” section
I do, I do! Given the range of books and illustrators, there’s a little something for everyone here, no matter how your taste may run.
For example – Brave New World, illustrated by Emily Carroll:
“Embryos are like photograph film,” said Mr Foster waggishly, as he pushed open the second door. “They can only stand red light.”
…or Charlie and the Chocolate factory, illustrated by John Martz:
The whole of this family — the six grownups (count them) and little Charlie Bucket — live together in a small wooden house on the edge of a great town.
Their house wasn’t nearly large enough for so many people, and life was extremely uncomfortable for them all. There were only two rooms in the place altogether and there was only one bed. The bed was given to the four old grandparents because they were so old and tired. They were so tired, they never got out of it.
And, as a final taster, the Neverending Story as illustrated by Chuck Groenink:
In short (he says at the end of a lengthy post) there is a lot of fantastic work in the Picture Book Report – hours of fun with a lot of great material to both read and look at. Enjoy!
