I’m starting a series of posts to highlight some of my favorite authors and illustrators. It’s an attempt to verbalize what I love about each and to think through how they’ve influenced my own process. I’m not sure what’ll come of this, but here we go.
In our first installment, Bill Peet.
Bill Peet started out as an animation in-betweener at Disney, became a storyboard artist and writer, and eventually launched a career as an author/illustrator when he grew frustrated at Disney.
Peet wrote many wonderful books, including Huge Harold, Chester the Worldly Pig, and Cyrus the Unsinkable Sea Serpent. But my favorite is Bill Peet: An Autobiography.
Peet’s writing is straightforward and his illustrations are spot on. I love his lively line work. I’ve spoken about this before, but one of my goals as an illustrator has always been to capture the freshness of the original sketch in the final artwork. Peet does this beautifully.
I also really love Peet’s pencil shading. Interior illustrations now don’t have enough of this scratchy look. I really want to incorporate more of this fun into my own work.
Peet’s able to brooch darker subjects like depression, disappointment, and death while retaining a sense of joy and humor. It’s a line many of my favorite illustrators are able to walk.
You may know that I’ve been illustrating Annie Barrows’ hilarious series, Iggy. I’ve been trying to capture the energy of Iggy through illustration, and some of my inspiration comes from Peet’s work. The editor and art director wanted Iggy’s illustrations to feel raw and lively. They pushed me quite a bit further than my initial concept sketches, towards a style where I used a dry brush pen and Faber Castell pencil on really rough watercolor paper, then shaded and added textures I’d scanned into the computer. I’m happy with the finished result, though it’s still hard for me to accept the fact that others won’t believe I did this on purpose. I still fear the “I could draw better than that!” comments I hear when people talk about Quentin Blake’s illustrations. (And no, you couldn’t.)
So, check out Bill Peet. You and your kids will love it for its personal take on Disney history and its easy-to-read text with delightful illustrations on every page.