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Michelle Lentz's avatar

I feel like Tenniel's illustrations for Alice in Wonderland must be mentioned. They created Alice as we know her today - and even Disney borrowed from Tenniel in their original animated film. I once read that Tenniel suffered from migraines with auras and that he drew many of the Alice illustrations the way he saw things during an episode. I just read Stephen King's Fairy Tale and the start of each chapter has a wonderful illustration of the characters on their adventures.

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Joel J Miller's avatar

Wonderful example there with Tenniel. You’re right. He set the visual/imaginative template for all of Wonderland. Regarding King’s book, interesting. I’ll have to check that out! Thanks!

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Steve Robinson's avatar

Ohhhh this is wonderful (and thanks for the links)! I've done a few drawings and I'm working on illustrating a poetry book right now. Illustration is difficult on two levels, one just the draughtsmanship skills no matter what medium one works in, but the harder is the creative/imagination side of it. To read a text and then come up with an image that captures its spirit, literal and metaphorical senses, and illuminates and frees the text rather than defines it is really difficult. I spend more time thinking about what the image "is" than I do drawing it, but even then, like writing, an image can take on a life of its own and demand its own life from the illustrator. Great post!

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