A Valency Art Book, or A Book of Art By Valency

So in going through all of my CRAPOLA in order to have a massive yard sale in order to move overseas AGAIN, I came across this book I made about 2 years ago for my Drawing II class...



The assignment was to make and illustrate a book any way we wanted to. It just had to be a handmade book and had to have at least 10 pages.

I decided to pay homage to something that truly inspires me, which are children's book illustrators. Usually not seen as "Fine Art," I decided to elevate it.

In art school, you are made to copy the work of "Master" artists in order to learn how to really paint. Artist have been doing this for centuries, and I must say it is good exercise... It's like "eating your vegetables" for artists (which is what I also say about live nude figure drawing, or still lifes... They drive me crazy sometimes, but they are SUCH good practice).

So I went trough and picked some of my favorite books/favorite illustrators/favorite images and I re-drew them myself...




Had to start with Richard Scarry - he is just wonderful. His illustrations are still as fresh and wonderful as they were in the 60s and 70s.




Next was a book called Gobbledy-Gook that I loved growing up and it took me a while to track down a copy of it - it was published in 1977 and then never came out again. Sad. It's a fantastic book.

Next was the incomparable Shel Silverstein (He has a fantastic website, BTW)...




I do love "Where the Sidewalk Ends" et al., but my heart belongs to "Lafcadio, the Lion Who Shot Back." LOVE.

My VERY favorite illustrator of ALL-TIME is Steven Kellogg. Hands down. I own over 100 of his books (including awesome titles like "Matilda Who Told Lies and Was Burned To Death"). Obsessed much?




I do think the frog on that mug needs a hint of green pastel smudged on it. Just a smidge. Smidge smudge. Yup.

Next is Tomie dePaola -





I always liked the dark turn of his book "The Clown of God," since the poor clown dies at the end. Not a lot of clowns die in kid's books. There aren't many "clowns of god" around, either... So strange! I also love his Strega Nona books, especially since I had a Yugoslavian step-grandma named "None" (pronounced NO-NAY)who totally reminded me of her, but I had to go with the first book I read of his...

Next is another fav book from my childhood that I had to hunt down, "The Great Escape" (YIKES it's pricey now)by Peter Lippman -




It's actually called "The Great Escape -or- The Sewer Story" and its about what happens to all of the baby alligators that were popular as pets in big cities like New York until they grew too big and people flushed them down the toilets. GENIUS. Published in 1973, and never again... Such a shame. I want to start a publishing company to republish all of these great books, I do...

The next book is actually from a movie but I had the cool chapter book that was published with images from the movie and I just LOVED it...




The movie was called "Raggedy Ann & Andy - A Musical Adventure" from 1977 - I was 5 years old and I STILL remember it. It involves the blue camel with the wrinkled knees and a French doll named Babette who is a total bitch but the Raggedys have to save her from a pirate who kidnaps her and the King pictured above is tiny but can expand immensely in size if people make him laugh. He had size issues.

I HAD to include "Where the Wild Things Are," which is a damn fine creepy book that was made into a damn fine creepy movie. (Although I made this book waaaay before the movie came out and it got all trendy again.)




I ADORE Maurice Sendak - the BEST film to watch is "Tell Them Anything You Want" which Spike Jonze created and Sendak recounts his childhood and life and how hard it was growing up gay and being unwanted by his parents - he's crotchety and hilarious.

Then on to Rosemary Wells, who is best known for Max & Ruby, but I love her for this:




Morris' Disappearing Bag! Happily still in print, although I must brag that I do have an original copy from 1975 that I saved from my Mom's musty basement many years ago...

And I do so lovelovelove James Marshall - If you haven't read "Miss Nelson is Missing," well, then I just can't be your friend.

I chose a scene from his series of "The Stupids" books, that was made into a hugely unfortunate live-action film in 1996, directed by John Landis?!? WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?? The best part about these books were James Marshall's illustrations...




RUINED by Tom Arnold. Ugh. The books were actually written by Harry Allard, but I was giving my props to the illustrations, not really the quotes. James Marshall was also very good friends with Maurice Sendak, and "Sendak said that in Marshall you got "the whole man", who "scolded, gossiped, bitterly reproached, but always loved and forgave" and "made me laugh until I cried," (via Wikipedia). Don't you just LOVE that?? I need more friends like this.

The next book gives me LOTS of hits on my blog - One Monster After Another by Mercer Mayer.




Sososososo good and it would be the first on my list of books to republish.

Aaaand onto the WHOLE DAMN SERIES of "Dorrie the Little Witch" books -



They are being reprinted here and there... I just remember checking and re-checking them out at our public library. I own 2 of the originals now, ex-library copies. Hard to find, but they make me so happy... Patricia Coombs is a rockstar.

And lastly we have Eloise, of course...




I'm kinda ambiguous about the Eloise movies that were made... they are sweet and all, but using live-action when the illustrations by Hilary Knight were SO GOOD, it should have just been made into an animated movie based on his drawings*. I'm just saying.

So that is just a taste of what inspires me... I could have added in some Quentin Blake and even some Dr. Seuss, but as with most school assignments, I ran out of time - Heck, I got an A on the assignment, and I'm good with that...

*Apparently, there was an attempt made to make an illustrated animated version, but it didn't turn out well... The Hilary Knight article is INCREDIBLY interesting (thanks Barb). Read it.