Fun All Around

Jan Balet

2006-06-14T00:39:00.000-04:00

I was first exposed to the work of Jan Balet at the vintage illustration flickr collection of Leif Peng of Today's Inspiration. Suffice it to say the name Jan Balet immediately went on my search list. Eventually, I hit paydirt. Collected here are some samples from the children's book What Makes an Orchestra written and illustrated by Jan Balet, 1951.

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New Website Design

2006-05-30T01:07:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the long delay in posting folks. Let me take this opportunity to announce the launch of the new and improved design of my website. I've added a few new works as well, one of which I've posted below for a job I did for Charlotte Magazine. Please check out the rest at www.esturdevant.com.

Leonard Weisgard Update

2006-05-08T22:40:00.000-04:00

Previously featured here last November, its time to follow-up with more vintage illustrations from Leonard Weisgard. The first five images are from the hard to find classic Little Golden Book from 1951, Pantaloon, written by Kathryn Jackson. The next three are from Pelican Here, Pelican There, which was also written by Weisgard and published in 1948.

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Yogi Bear and the Cranky Magician

2006-04-21T02:00:00.000-04:00

Another classic illustrated by Mel Crawford, circa 1963. I added some more samples from this book at my flickr page for Mel Crawford. I previously posted about Mr. Crawford's work here. Also, check out Clarke Snyde's excellent blog Inspiration Grab-Bag and see his post of Mel Crawford's Pebbles Flintstone Little Golden Book.

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Communication Arts: Illustration 47

2006-04-12T23:11:00.000-04:00

The above illustration of mine was recently selected to be in Illustration Annual 47, the July '06 issue of Communication Arts. I've long admired the works that appeared in the CA Illustration Annuals, so it's really gratifying to have made it into this year's edition, my first ever! The piece originally was done as a job for Atlanta Magazine. Also, you may remember it from a previous Illustration Friday post from last December.

Mr. Jolly's Sidewalk Market

2006-04-10T01:46:00.000-04:00

In consecutive 2 page spreads, one for every month of the year, the activity surrounding Mr. Jolly's Sidewalk Market is depicted in this charming wordless book. Story and pictures by Laura Jean Allen, published in 1963. To see more images, go to my flickr page, or drop on over to The Retro Kid for even more great vintage children's printed goodies from the mid 20th century.

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(detail from November spread)

Spring Postcard Promo

2006-03-30T23:23:00.000-05:00

It's that time again. Pictured is each side of the latest postcard promotional for my illustration biz. Just waiting to get them back from the printer, hopefully by end of next week. Then its off to the post office...

Storybook Ad Art from the 50s

2006-03-27T17:07:00.000-05:00

Each day this week, Leif Peng at Today's Inspriation blog is featuring vintage ads from the 1950s with illustration stylistically influenced by children's story books. He's invited various guests to write the posts to go with these images. Monday's guest blogger is Dan Goodsell of A Sampler of Things blog with a very informative commentary on a lushly illustrated ad for Del Monte. I've written a post that Leif will run later this week, so be sure to check back again and again, you'll be glad you did.

John Parr Miller, part 3

2006-03-21T23:02:00.000-05:00

Little Peewee (1948), written by Dorothy Kunhardt, was J. P. Miller's first in the Little Golden Book series, followed by Tommy's Wonderful Rides (not pictured).

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John Parr Miller, part 2

2006-03-13T00:03:00.000-05:00

The below excerpt is from J. P. Miller's N.Y. Times obituary...

... the illustrator of several incredible Little Golden Books, Miller's art is still influential to a new generation of animators artists. His "Little Red Hen" is still in print and considered a classic. "Lucky Mrs. Ticklefeather," "Little Pee Wee" "The Little Golden Funny Book", "The Marvelous Merry-Go-Round", "Tommy's Wonderful Rides", "The Circus ABC" and many others, define the Little Golden Book style. These books, all done in the late 1940s and early 50s, are prime examples of the stylized modern commercial art of the era - and a huge influence on many of today's best animators (including Spumco), leading cartoonists and commercial designers.

Also, be sure to read A Remebrance of John Parr Miller by his brother George Miller at Cartoon Brew. It details his beginnings as an animator at Disney during the depression.

These samples are from the Little Golden Book version of the Brothers Grimm classic The Musicians of Bremen, 1954.

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John Parr Miller (1913-2004) What If?

2006-03-07T23:43:00.000-05:00

This is the first in a series of posts on J. P. Miller. Of the classic Little Golden Book illustrators, J. P. Miller is probably my favorite. The following are from the his Little Golden Book, What If? written by Helen and Henry Tanous, first published in 1951.

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Roger Bradfield

2006-02-26T11:12:00.000-05:00

THERE'S AN ELEPHANT IN THE BATHTUB published in 1964, was the first children's book by Roger Bradfield. Check out the cover gallery on his web site to see more of his many titles. One of these books, PICKLE CHIFFON PIE, has been reprinted by Purple House Press with THE FLYING HOCKEY STICK to come this spring. I've got some more scans here and at The Retro Kid flickr group.

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Dellwyn Cunningham

2006-02-17T01:17:00.000-05:00

Here are some samples from a few books illustrated by Dellwyn Cunningham. Represented are: The Blowaway Hat 1946, What Am I? I'm A Churkendoose! 1946, and Fuzzy Friends in Mother Goose 1952. If you want to see more click on over to my flickr page.

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Rare Cartoon Gallery

2006-02-14T15:39:00.000-05:00

Christopher Wheeler has compiled an impressive collection of rare Charles Addams cover art which he has generously posted here for all our viewing pleasure. While you're at it, check out the rest of his vast cartoon collection. Included are photos of most of the 275 artists featured.

Janet LaSalle: SOUND

2006-02-07T00:30:00.000-05:00

These illustrations by Janet LaSalle are from the book SOUND originally published in 1962 as part of an educational series by Follett Pubishing Company. Her deceptively simple illustrations also appear in BILLY'S NEIGHBORS, another educational book by Follett from 1957. Many lively images from this book can be seen at my flickr page.

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Bemelmans: The Best of Times, Part 3

2006-01-29T01:33:00.000-05:00

This is the last in the series for The Best of Times by Ludwig Bemelmans.

(cover detail)

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Bemelmans: The Best of Times, Part 2

2006-01-26T00:15:00.000-05:00

Here are some more images from The Best of Times by Ludwig Bemelmans...

If you're interested in an learning more of Bemelman's life and career, I recommend the book Bemelmans: the Life and Art of Madeline's Creator, compiled and written by his grandson John Bemelmans Marciano. If you're interested, click on the link, Amazon has some great deals in the used section. The book has a lots of photos and reproductions of his art, including some unpublished work. I'm not finished with it yet, but so far it's an interesting read.

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Ludwig Bemelmans: The Best of Times

2006-01-23T19:14:00.000-05:00

Most known for his children's book series Madeline, Ludwig Bemelmans was a prolific author and illustrator of many books for adults, as well as a regular magazine contributor.

On assignment for Holiday magazine, Bemelmans traveled through postwar Europe producing a series of articles, drawings and paintings. The Best of Times, published in 1948, collects these works which include 50 color illustrations and 110 black and white illustrations.

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Aliki: All Kinds of Neighbors

2006-01-21T02:03:00.000-05:00

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A Little Owl Book published in 1963, ALL KINDS OF NEIGHBORS was written by Howard R. Wellesley.

These are a few images from one of my favorite books that was illustrated by Aliki. I have tons more of her stuff at my flickr page HERE.

Illustration Friday: E is for...

2006-01-18T14:44:00.000-05:00

© Eric Sturdevant 2006

EXPERIMENTATION could also work for this. I wanted to try something different for this week's IF and had some fun experimenting with brushes in PhotoShop.

Frans Masereel

2006-01-18T02:16:00.000-05:00

First published in Germany in 1925, THE CITY is a portrait of urban Europe between the wars, told in one hundred woodcuts of exceptional force and beauty.

This is a change in tone, so I beg your pardon in advance if you came here to see fun pictures (after all the name of this blog is Fun All Around). Still, I feel compelled to post the woodcuts of Belgian born artist Frans Masereel from his wordless book THE CITY. The opening quote (as well as these scans) were taken from the 1988 reprint from Schocken Books.

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Abner Graboff

2006-01-13T01:13:00.000-05:00

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Simplicity and a strong sense of design mark the warm and playfully absurd work of Abner Graboff. You can see more samples of his book illustration here.

Cliff Roberts

2006-01-08T01:41:00.000-05:00

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Happy New Year gentle surfers! I'm sorry that it's been a while since my last post. So far the Baby New Year has brought a lot of good work my way, which in turn, has kept me away from the blog.

The above illustrations were some early work done by Cliff Roberts for FORD TIMES magazine. At a young age, Roberts did wildlife illustrations for FORD TIMES in the late 40s, before he went on to work in animation as a designer and writer. Roberts cites illustrator Jan Balet as an influence of his from this period. Leif Peng at Today's Inspiration has provided some great samples of Balet's work here. A few more samples of Roberts' FORD TIMES work can be found here.

Thanks to Amid Amidi at Cartoon Brew for pointing me in the direction to find Cliff Roberts' work and for providing an article about his career, written by Roberts in 1971.

Joseph Giordano

2005-12-30T01:51:00.000-05:00

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I end the year with these covers from the Bobbs-Merrill Best of Children's Literature elementary school readers, published in 1960. I can't get over the whimsically absurd wrap-around cover art of Joseph Giordano that graced these texts. You'll notice the name for this blog comes from one of the titles. Giordano was also one of many who did interior illustrations for this series which number six in all. If you want to check out the other two covers and some of Giordano's inside illustrations, click here.

Thanks to all who supported my foray into the blog-o-sphere with their comments and for highlighting Fun All Around on their blogs. With five weeks since it's inception, this blog has had visitors in 30 different countries from all four corners of the world-wide-web. That blows my mind. I hope to continue to make this a fun place to visit for the coming year. One thing I'd like to do for 2006 is expand the content to include contemporary illustrators that I like. Of course, I'll also continue to feature children's book illustrators of the mid-20th century, as well as stuff I've been working on.

Have a happy New Year!

Best wishes,
Eric

the most famous reindeer off all...

2005-12-23T18:11:00.000-05:00

A favorite from my childhood collection - Roudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, illustrated by Richard Scarry.

Have a wonderful and joyous Christmas and a happy New Year!

Eric

Mel Crawford - Rootie Kazootie

2005-12-21T03:59:00.000-05:00

Three Little Golden Books illustrated by Mel Crawford were based on Rootie Kazootie, a Howdy Doody like kid's TV show from the '50s. Rootie Kazootie Detective 1953, Rootie Kazootie Baseball Star 1954 (not shown); and Rootie Kazootie Joins the Circus 1955 complete the LGB series.

Mel Crawford illustrated over 200 children's books including many Little Golden Books using both cartoony and traditional "realistic" styles, depending on the subject matter. As you can see, I'm a bigger fan of the cartoony stuff which also includes books featuring Yogi Bear and The Flintstones. If you want to see more work by Mel Crawford be sure to visit my flickr page.

from Rootie Kazootie Joins the Circus

from Rootie Kazootie Joins the Circus

from Rootie Kazootie Detective

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Designers Who Blog

2005-12-17T23:44:00.000-05:00

I'd like to send thanks out to Catherine Morely for featuring Fun All Around on Designers Who Blog. So, what is Designers Who Blog all about?... you guessed it, design blogs! As well as illustration, photography, advertising, and marketing blogs, etc. from all over the world-wide-web. Not only that, you have a chance of catching my mug in Catherine's cool rotator.php banners of DWB's featured bloggers. Pretty swanky, huh. So be sure to go check it out...

Making Me Look Good

2005-12-17T03:21:00.000-05:00

Here are a couple of magazine page layouts that my illustrations appeared in. It's always gratifying to see your work in print, but it is especially so when the layouts are as nice as these ones. When type and image come together seemlessly, it becomes something else...

Art directed by Edie Fleshood for Log Home Living.

Art directed by Rob Williams for Nashville Scene.

Elisabeth Brozowska

2005-12-15T13:28:00.000-05:00

Two Wonder Books by Elisabeth Brozowska feature a little boy in a fanciful escape from reality. In The Animal's Party from 1962, Peter has a dream that he goes to the zoo after hours to party the night away. Johnny's experience in The Boy Who Wouldn't Eat His Breakfast from 1963, is more harrowing than Peter's. Johnny learns a lesson, when, as a result of not eating his breakfast, he shrinks to the size of an egg. Both books are wonderfully illustrated by the author. If you like these, there are some more samples at the Retro Kid and on my flickr page. Also, click here to see even more great work from Elisabeth Brozowska and others, including Bernice Myers.

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Bernice Myers

2005-12-12T05:21:00.000-05:00

If I were King, Bernice Myers' original illustrations from Les Quatre Musiciens (above) would be hanging on my walls. Alas, I only have samples pulled from the web to offer.

These scans are from voila le facteur! I love the old flower seller. She reminds me of a lady who sold flowers on my corner when I used to live in Richmond.

The First Book of Mexico, 1955. - with husband Lou Myers.

Sailing on a Very Fine Day, 1954 - with husband Lou Myers.

What can I say about the work of Bernice Myers... I love, love, love it! Some of her early work shown here was done in collaboration with her husband Lou Myers who recently died at the age of 90.

After the war, Mr. Myers returned to his job at Columbia, where he met his second wife, Bernice, a children's book illustrator. In 1952, they moved to Paris, where Mr. Myers also illustrated children's books and began drawing captionless cartoons for French magazines and newspapers. - from Lou Myers' obituary by STEVEN HELLER.

The bio clipping on the right is from the dust jacket to The First Book of Mexico. If you like this stuff please visit my flickr page where I have lots more samples of Bernice and Lou Myers work.

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Illustration Friday: Surprise

2005-12-10T02:36:00.000-05:00

My Illustration Friday submission this week is a job I did last month for Atlanta Magazine. It was for a humorous article written by an SUV driver who was lamenting high gas prices.
© Eric Sturdevant 2005

Harry McNaught's Oz

2005-12-05T16:14:00.000-05:00

In a trio of Little Golden Books from 1952, the stories of L. Frank Baum's Oz series were vividly brought to life by illustrator Harry McNaught. The Emerald City of Oz, The Road to Oz, and The Tin Woodman of Oz offer McNaught's whimsically modern take on these classic tales. Unfortunately, the only other children's books by McNaught from this period that I've come across are educational science books and the like. Stylistically, nothing like the playful warmth and humor of the Oz Little Golden Books. It's a shame because I think this work is on a par with the best that I've seen from this period in children's book illustration.

True to form, Leif Peng of Today's Inspiration inspired this post with his flickr set from The Emerald City of Oz at The Retro Kid. Seeing his post brought my attention back to these books and caused me to re-discover their quality. There are more scans from the other two books at my flickr page for Harry McNaught.

~ I'd like to send a big thanks out to Amid Amidi at Cartoon Brew, and to my Retro Kid pal Ward Jenkins at The Ward-O-Matic for their support of this blog. Thanks for the mentions guys! ~

The Road to Oz

The Emerald City of Oz - courtesy Leif Peng

The Tin Woodman of Oz

The Road to Oz

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Illustration Friday: Small

2005-12-01T02:24:00.000-05:00

Another movie themed IF this week, an old one this time. I did this a couple of years ago when I first started experimenting with the computer. It's the first piece I did that led to my current style. Though it's been a while, I still like it.
© Eric Sturdevant 2003

Leonard Weisgard (1916-2000)

2005-11-30T00:24:00.000-05:00

"There are times in illustrating when the artist of today must rub his nose against the reality of things and try to catch with the honesty of a child a yellow sun like a pat of butter in the sky, with clouds of cottage cheese and the smoke of boats flying in all directions, with no concern for north or east. Houses with windows gaping and people like raisins on the street, a fire engine tearing off the page and a policeman stopping everything."

Leonard Weisgard,
Caldecott Acceptance Speech - July 2, 1947

Pelican Here, Pelican There, 1948

Pelican Here, Pelican There, 1948

The Summer Noisy Book, 1951

The Book of Nursery Tales, 1954

Just Like Me, 1954

The Little Eskimo, 1952

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The modern stylized look of mid-20th century illustration is something that's been a keen interest of mine and has had a major influence on my art in the last couple of years. As a result, I've become a voracious ebayer, scouring their auctions for the choicest relics of this period and I've acquired a modestly respectable collection of vintage children's books.

Leonard Weisgard was one of the illustrators to emerge as a practitioner of this modern look early on in children's books. His career spanned over five decades and he illustrated over 200 books, including The Noisy Book, 1939, The Golden Egg Book, 1947, and the Caldecott Medal winner The Little Island, 1946.

To learn more about Leonard Weisgard and see more great samples of his art visit, this website created by his children as a tribute to his work. More samples of his work can also be found here and at my flickr page.

Welcome to My Neighborhood!

2005-11-26T16:39:00.000-05:00

Hi, welcome to Fun All Around! First, let me start off by thanking all who made comments on my first Illustration Friday post. It really means a lot for me to read such kind words of encouragement, I hope to continue posting stuff that tickles your fancy. OK, who am I, and why Fun All Around? My name is Eric Sturdevant and I'm a freelance illustrator. I started this blog to share my illustration work as well as discuss what influences and inspires me. Of particular interest to me is the work of many children's book illustrators from the 40s-60s, including such artists as: J. P. Miller, Aurelius Battaglia, Abner Graboff, Alice & Martin Provensen, Miroslav Sasek, Mary Blair, Jim Flora, Alain Gree, Aliki, and many others. To view an extensive and growing catalog of images from this period of illustration for children, visit The Retro Kid flickr group. There's a plethora of excellent samples from many a contributor's collection, including my own. Well... I hope you find Fun All Around to be interesting and enjoyable... thanks for dropping by!

The above doodles were done as preliminary sketches for a postcard promo I mailed out recently.
© Eric Sturdevant 2005

Illustration Friday: Free

2005-11-24T04:34:00.000-05:00

My first Illustration Friday submission is also the first post for my new blog. Inspired by the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?
© Eric Sturdevant 2005