Friday, January 29, 2010

Illustrators' Intensive Opens with Paul Zelinsky

Paul Zelinsky shares how he gets his work to be unique and distinctive.
Lots of thieving and studying of all types of art work from different eras and regions.

When working on the latest Ogre book, Paul wanted to find a way to bring a messiness to the illustrations and looked to modern art and children's art.


Details of setting help complete the character -- many of which aren't mentioned in the text at all -- details Paul intuited to "get into the core of the story" like in this spread from AWFUL OGRE'S RUNNING WILD




Paul LIVE DRAWS in Photoshop for us! The original character ideas that everyone assumed would be used for the Shivers book, which is very different from the final style and something Paul fought for.


GENIUS! Looking for inspiration in unexpected places, Paul remembered something he'd read as a kid in a magic book:

I kid you not, Paul invented a magic trick inspired, half-mirrored box to project his drawings onto wood veneer for the upcoming sequel to SWAMP ANGEL, DUST DEVIL (which will be out this fall.) He says he didn't patent the box so we are all free to try and make one, but I think we should at least agree to call it The Zelinsky.

Paul's almost last words:

"Let Mo make his pigeons and Tomie make his Strega Nonas... find your own way to simulate uniqueness... There's always ancient Egypt, Mayan walls, Paul Klee..."

Posted by Jaime

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