In his brief stay on this world, Egon Schiele managed to overturn many cultural and social notions of painting and art. Schiele’s work is raw and erotic- even by current standards. In the early 1900’s his paintings ended up landing him in prison for “obscenity”. I find his work wonderful- particularly the oddly skewed nature of the figures. I wish I could more eloquently describe it for you, but perhaps just looking at the work will do a better job:

Self Portrait with Hand on Cheek, Egon Schiele, 1910

Seated Female Nude with Raised Right, Egon Schiele, 1910

Self Portrait with Winter Cherry, Egon Schiele, 1912

Striding Torso in Green Blouse, Egon Schiele, 1913

Sinking Sun, Egon Schiele, 1913

And my favorite:

Seated Woman with Bent Knee, Egon Schiele, 1917

So I have this tattered copy of “Scary Stories” by Alvin Schwartz. I’ve had the thing since I was very young, and to this day it grips me with fear.

I don’t recall ever actually reading it… (maybe one or two stories, but I thought they were boring- for very young children).

The reason the book is so memorable (and the reason I am writing a post about it) is decidedly due to a man from St. Paul, Minnesota. His name is Stephen Gammell… and he terrifies me. I think the first time I opened the book (probably in Kindergarten) I turned to the page below and curled up into a ball.

But despite not having the courage to open the book again, the small toddler version of me bought the damn book- so that I could take it home and be too scared to open it there.

Eventually, I did open the book again. And found the illustrations still terrified me. But I also found that the illustrations were magnificent. Here are a few more of Stephen Gammell’s drawings:

This next character appears in multiple pages throughout the book. I’m not sure if there is some particular significance to him, but here he is eating some bloody looking cereal:

I am very intrigued by the way strands of goop seem to stretch off of every mark. The drawings become very tangible- like I might get some on me if I brushed my hand over them…

Stephen Gammell has had illustrations in a number of other books. He won the Caldecott Medal for his work in “Song and Dance Man” by Karen Ackerman. I highly recommend checking out some of his other works (They aren’t all so gruesome).

Sweet dreams,
-Tom

While I’m talking about Czechs…

I took a trip to Prague this summer to see my family and had the chance to see a photography exhibition called “Geometrie Nahoty” (Geometry of Nudity). The photographer’s name is Pavel Brunclik (Pah-vel Broon-tsleek) and I was immediately taken in by the imagery. I’ve always been very interested in human anatomy (while I was in Prague I also went to see the astounding Bodies exhibit). I tried to sketch a few of the photographs but I did not do them justice. I managed to find some images online of the gallery photos, so have a look:

The lighting was pretty neat. I believe models are all ballet dancers and it looks like they were really pushed to the limit physically for some of these poses. They really inspired me to draw. I tried to draw a few of the figures from the photos while I was in the gallery- here are two of my quick sketches:

That is all, for now…

-Tom

This post is spurred by a recent post about Czech Animator Jiri Trnka on Animation-treasures 2 by Hans Bacher (Where I graciously made a mess of the comments board :-/). In any case- as some of you may or may not know, I am from the Czech Republic. Not only that, but I am hoping to return sometime (from my current home in Ohio) to attend graduate school in animation. Czech Rep. has a very rich history in animation and art, and I thought I’d post something today about one of my favorite illustrators.

The man’s name is Petr Sis (Peh-tur Seess)- in english he is “Peter”- and he is a children’s book author (among many other things). Born in 1949, Sis lived through some of the less favorably remembered times of Czechoslovakia (mainly Soviet occupation), but he managed to lead quite an extraordinary life (and still does). Sis’ work ranges from awarded films to major book illustrations and Sis has appeared in several major publications. (Read more about Petr here)

Anyway, I just wanted to share some images from his books, which I always found quite captivating:

I find Sis’ graphical style quite magical. It certainly has something to do with growing up with his books- but I think Petr’s work is well worth some examination.

Until next time,

-Tom