Yes­ter­day I fea­tured the work of two children’s book illus­tra­tors. With that still on the brain, I was look­ing through Flickr today at the Vin­tage Children’s Book Group, try­ing to find one lone artist to fea­ture… when I just couldn’t decide! I have an affin­ity for vin­tage books, espe­cially con­sid­er­ing how they relate to us ...

Richard Erdoes was an Aus­trian illus­tra­tor born in 1912 and even­tu­ally imi­grated to the United States where he went on to estab­lish him­self as an illus­tra­tor for LIFE mag­a­zine and a num­ber of other children’s books. Around the end of the 1960’s, Richard did a series of books called “around the world”. He illus­trated about ...

Look­ing back on past artis­tic move­ments and styles can be such a won­der­ful thing. Charley Harper is an Amer­i­can illus­tra­tor who pro­duced work after grad­u­at­ing art school in 1947. He gained acclaim illus­trat­ing wildlife and nature for a num­ber of char­i­ta­ble and com­mer­cial ven­tures, includ­ing cook­books and textbooks. Charley’s illus­tra­tions work on sev­eral dif­fer­ent lev­els. ...

While writ­ing this, I am sit­ting near the water in Bal­ti­more. Sail­ing on a Very Fine Day seems like an appro­pri­ate thing to share, no? (Also, I love ban­jos, wish I could play one). The book is illus­trated by Ber­nice and Lou Myers. Sail­ing on a Very Fine Dayis a Golden Book, orig­i­nally pub­lished in 1954. ...

For Fri­day, let’s take it back a bit. I’ve always enjoyed illus­tra­tions from the 1940’s, 50’s, and 60’s. Aure­lius Battaglia was an Amer­i­can illus­tra­tor and mural­ist. He worked at Dis­ney on pro­duc­tions such as Dumbo, Fan­ta­sia, and Pinoc­chio, in addi­tion to being a pro­lific children’s book writer. Aure­lius has a sense of color that I ...

Max Loren Holyoke is no stranger the world of illus­tra­tion. With clients like the New York Times, The New Yorker, and GQ, he’s really hit the big times. There’s a good rea­son why Max’s work is sought after — it’s so engag­ing and has a won­der­ful dual­ity to his images. His work is flat, yet has ...

San­dra Juto is an illus­tra­tor liv­ing in Swe­den. Mod­ern with a vin­tage feel, her work can be both con­cep­tual and com­mer­cial. She has a vari­ety of clients and per­sonal projects that seem to allow her to flex either muscle. I think that Sandra’s work is very sweet and sen­si­tive, made pos­si­ble through her char­ac­ter devel­op­ment. ...

Fla­vor Paper is a com­pany that pro­duces wall­pa­per. Sounds sort of bor­ing, right? Well, Fla­vor Paper pro­duces some­thing a bit more off-beat — cus­tom wall­pa­pers — vin­tage, con­tem­po­rary, and hand screened. The result is highly designed, unique and col­or­ful pieces for your room. It would be really fun to have a wall of this in ...

After writ­ing about Ben Javens, I can’t get Alice and Mar­tin Provensen off my brain. Their work is really superb and exactly what I’ve been in the mood to look at for the past few days. Mar­tin and Alice were a husband/wife illus­tra­tion and writ­ing team. Both orig­i­nally started as cartoonist/animators for Dis­ney and the Wal­ter ...

Ben Javens is another artist whose work I enjoy. He is an illustrator/print maker from the United Kingdom. I love the sim­plic­ity of his images. Through his process, you can see how con­sid­ered every part of his work is. I think it’s the qual­ity I appre­ci­ate the most — the par­ing down of super­flu­ous details ...