Summer Reading: Fixated on Martin Salisbury

Here’s a different kind of beach read for anyone who enjoys visual inspiration and just plain great graphics. I started reading this book, one page at a time, as we packed up to move from San Francisco. I loved it. Then it disappeared. Only recently I finally found the box of books where this beloved tome was hiding:



100 Great Childrens’ Picturebooks. “This unashamed visual feast celebrates the best designed and illustrated picturebooks from around the world over the past one hundred years”. Working chronologically from the earliest color-illustrated books for children, this book works its way across time and around the world, including Russian Constructivists, Italian Futurists, Postwar Neo-romantics and so much more. It’s fascinating to follow the changes in what was offered to children and to learn more about the illustrators. The introduction promises. it will be “fearlessly confronting the frontiers between a child’s picturebook and art, this is a collection of books that anyone with an interest in design, illustration, or simply children’s literature should know about.” Sweet, spicy, challenging, it’s all here. Gotta love it!

…and once I got started on Martin Salisbury I just couldn’t stop. I’m pigging out on 3 more titles our beloved library lets me enjoy:

Play Pen by Martin Salisbury is focused on contemporary children’s book illustrations, recognizing that the visual world children live in today is full of movies, cartoons, tv, video games, etc. Each illustrator gets 4 pages, showcasing a variety of their works, and including some of their own words about their experiences and approaches to illustration.
Children’s Picture Books, the Art of Visual Storytelling  by Martin Salisbury. This is a thought-provoking, deep inquiry into the industry, concepts, practices and techniques that contribute to the creation of the picturebook. And, of course, it’s visually rewarding.
The Illustrated Dust Jacket 1920-1970 by Martin Salisbury. And then veering off from children’s material altogether, this is a compendium of graphic design for book covers from both sides of the Atlantic. Organized alphabetically by illustrators’ last names, it includes both famous and lesser-known artists and discusses both their works and their lives. Another visual feast.

I’m recommending these all as summer reads because I can so easily imagine lounging in a hammock or outdoor chair and  just picking any page or two at random to inspire delicious daydreams.

Thinking About Play Worlds: Toys, Worldbuilding, Anthropomorphism

From time to time, I fall into what I call “deep thinking about teddy bears.” You can read some of my earlier thoughts in a couple of blog posts from 2015 (1 and 2).

My recent musings have been drawn to two interconnected themes: world building and anthropomorphism. These are intriguing things to ponder for those of us who are driven to make animal characters and other fantasy creatures.

• What’s the blend of human+fantasy?
• And what about the world building we unconsciously do when making choices about what kind accessories we give them, what kind of world they inhabit?
• And ultimately, do I care about following an internal logic that spans the creatures I make?

There’s a range of choices. Do they live in our world, repurposing human-sized objects and settings for their lives? Stuart Little, the Borrowers (or Pippa Mouse).



Or do they have their own world, where they have the same things that we have, only in miniature, like the Brambly Hedge universe or Marjolein Bastin’s glorious Vera the Mouse?



Or is it a blend, like Eileen Lam‘s Blythe-centric Little Mischiefs, little characters with their own objects in a big world? Her video gives some insights into how she thinks about her characters and also showcases her fearless embrace of being an elegant grownup who loves to play with dolls.

And world building aside, I ask myself the same questions about anthropomorphism in the animals I make–how humanlike are they?

Annie Montgomerie really teases this one with her amazing creations.

…and if you haven’t yet discovered Maggie Rudy and her Mouseland, you’re in for a treat. Like Eileen Lam, she’s a children’s book author/illustrator who creates intense dioramas, then photographs them as illustrations for her books. But her stories feature animals instead of dolls. set in the intricate worlds she builds. Her Instagram grid never fails to delight me. 

Sootypaws is her Cinderella re-telling–I can hardly believe her level of skill to create these vivid scenes that she blends from human and animal elements. Rudy is very generous in sharing her processes with a “Making Mouseland” page and a video that’s a lovely visit to her studio

Finally, I just can’t leave this topic without a nod to Tatsuya Tanaka’s delightful work, even though it’s pretty much “beyond toys”.  Pistachios become alien seedpods while french fries and catsup combine to make a campfire. Yes! and there are hundreds of them to explore. Just plain brilliant!

Of course, there’s really no need to do “deep thinking” about the pleasures of exercising imagination and the sheer fun of play. But if you’re like me and also enjoy playing with your thoughts about how and why you play, I hope you’ve found something fun here!

Let me know…