Saturday, April 10, 2010

Peter Brown Breakout: The Laments of Style #scbwiwwa

Peter starts off his slideshow with some paintings he did in art school. They were all a bit wacky.

Peter decided he wanted to find a new style that was not only appropriate for children's books, but appealing and unique.

Looking to develop this style he did some Art Exploration -- looking at fine artists, naive artists, photographers, sculptors, illustrators, animators, etc.

Peter made color copies of his favorite pieces and glued them to foam boards which he set up all over his studio to look at.

Some of his favorites included: Henry Darger, Wolf Erlbruch, Lisbeth Zwerger, Disney, Edward Gorey, and more.





The important thing about the style boards, though, is Peter asked himself questions about all the pieces like:
  • What do you like about the pieces you've collected?
  • Write a list of the qualities you like about each piece (for example, Zwerger -- areas of detail and openess)
  • Do you notice any patterns or trends in what you like?

Experiment in your own paintings and then begin analyzing and refining your style.

Peter then describes the steps he takes to make his book art. FUN FACT!!! Peter mixes up his colors ahead of time in large jars -- like the sky blue in THE CURIOUS GARDEN (available in the conference bookstore)


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