Reiner Zimnik

I love it when I find a new illustrator & writer I love that I'd never heard of before and then it turns out that he's from my home country Germany! I stumbled across one of his books 'The Bear and the People' here in Vancouver, or rather on beautiful Mayne Island while camping. I had never been to Mayne Island before this summer and it was greaaaatttt! Of course I had to stick my head into the lovely bookshop there called 'Miners Bay Books'. It was a great little shop with tons of character and a really fantastic selection in all genres I have to say. Their picture book selection was quite unusual. I remember being pleasantly surprised at how many books they had that I'd never seen before. Among them were Maxfield Parrish's unique 'The Knave of Hearts" and Reiner Zimnik's reprint of said book, 'The Bear and the People'. While I didn't buy either of the books because I was camping and wanted to stay light, and probably also because my bookshelf has absolutely no more room on it at this point. :) I did note both books and illustrators, and have thus discovered the many amazing books by Reiner Zimnik.

There is something about pen drawings of German picture books that I can't quite put my finger on, but I can tell when looking at them that the person who did them was from Germany. Does this sound crazy? There is a certain aesthetic of line that seems to happen in a lot of them that I really appreciate. One of these is now the drawings of Reiner Zimnik. Searching around online for more of his work, one thing I couldn't help but notice what his fantastic ability to make interesting work for his book covers. I am in love with the original cover illustration for 'Der Angler/(The fisherman)'. Also note the different versions of his covers through the ages. Enjoy.

Oh, one more thing. I also found that this neat blog, 'The apple and the egg' did a post on one of his books 'The Snow Party', where you can see the entire pages of the inside of the book. Check it out here.

Picture Book Report

I just stumbled across this great blog here which I had not previously seen.

Of course it's a great exercise if you're looking for a project as an aspiring illustrator to illustrate one of your favorite books (picture books, or novel) yourself! The Picture Book Report has challenged 15 illustrators to do exactly that. Great idea to showcase the whole experiment by compiling it into this neat blog. Do check these out.

One of my favorite illustrators from the project just so happens to be the woman who made the whole thing happen in the first place. Her name is Meg Hunt and her work is fantastic! Do check out her website.

I also really love this illustration (above) for the cover of one of my favorite stories ever... 'The Neverending Story" by German Author Michael Ende. So beautiful.

A Wee Change of Sea...

It's been coming for a long time, and has really already started a long ways back with posts here and there, but I just want to take the time to let everyone who reads this know that I'm officially getting rid of the 'children's picture book' description of this blog and changing it to the more all encompassing 'picture books' and all related. This is because it has occurred to me from time to time to write something about a graphic novel or comic book, but then realized that the book would not really fit the criteria for the blog. And while my interest in Picture books specifically for children has by no means declined, I can't really ignore the fact that I am also insanely into comics, graphic novels and of course also picture books made specifically with us 'older kids' in mind. So instead of starting yet a separate blog which I really could not do, this one will simply expand in it's content a bit. Hurrah for ... adults. .. :)

Back to school!

Hey hey. After a little break from posts, it's back to school and back to posting stuff! This one's for everyone in my class who is wondering where to get the cheap but great calligraphy brushes in chinatown, Vancouver. Here is a picture of the place so you don't miss it. Really close to the Pender street entrance of the Dr. Sun Yat Sen gardens in location.

The shop is called "Chinese Art Crafts" and is located at 72 E. Pender Street. Tell them the woman who buys 20 brushes at a time sent you there. :)

While you're there and since they're so cheap, buy a couple of different sizes and see which ones work best for you. Pay attention to the tip of the brush. Don't get one that does not have a nice pointy tip. Most of them will be fine, but sometimes there's the odd one that's bent out of shape a bit... literally.