Childhood Favourites: Illustrators!

      Illustrators. The all-too-often unsung heroes of children's books. A good book for kids is nothing without, quite frankly, a magician with a paintbrush at the helm, conjuring up the worlds authors had created for small people. These incredibly talented individuals give children the building blocks for imagination and they help them picture difficult, beautiful and impossible things.

      I've always regarded the marriage of author and illustrator to be a really special one. It must be done right. Often, I remember a book, but cannot for the life of me remember the name or author, but I can SEE the book in my mind! That is the sign of an amazing illustrator - one who can stand the test of time and make a permanent mark on someone's mind.*

     Below, I have listed a few of my favourites!

     So, I was privileged enough to grow up and read books illustrated by these fabulous people. I have tried to link their websites where possible. Google them yourself if you need more info. 

     I've compiled a list here of eight, but please know that whittling it down to eight was one of the most difficult things I had to do. I missed out some amazing artists such as Harry Horse, Tony Ross, and Nick Sharratt, to name a few. 

Without further adieu:

- Sir Quentin Blake - The man, the myth, the legend. My favourite EVER illustration is Matilda surrounded by books. Blake has a very specific colour palette that I just adore, I love his pinks and blues. When I was interning at Pavilion Books (back in the day/2015), I had to check the illustrations for their publication of his illustrated edition of A Christmas Carol. I thought I was going to just combust, it was the greatest task I had ever been given. Very dramatic, I know, but I think he is the greatest illustrator ever and I personally think that Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake are the perfect combination of author and illustrator this world has ever seen. This is no exaggeration. I would die for this belief. 

- Janet Ahlberg - Each Peach Pear Plum was a firm favourite growing up. I loved the aesthetic of Each Peach; each page was so busy and you had to seek out the characters, which I thought was great. I have always admired Ahlberg's versatility too. Her work on the more traditional looking works such as Each Peach and The Jolly Pocket Postman looks worlds away from her more cartoon-style work with Funny Bones, which, again, I loved.




- Jill Murphy - When I first realised I wanted to work in children's publishing, I began to research all my old favourite books. This was one of the first books I remembered and bought. When I told my mum, she said "I loved that one", with a soft smile. I immediately saw Mrs Large. Not the elephant part, obviously, but I noticed that they share the same selflessness and patience that I can only ever hope to have. How on God's green earth did Murphy ever manage to capture the tiredness of a parent in the eyes of an elephant? Absolute witchcraft.

- Lauren Child - Our current Queen of Books Children's Laureate! I always loved her layers - not just block colours, but fun and exciting textures and patterns. I loved the lines of Child's work. Nothing was perfect and whilst her characters looked quite simple, the depth comes from the patterns and all of these contrasting colours. This makes everything come to life, and they held up so well when transformed into the Charlie and Lola TV show! I loved how in one page, her characters were at home, then the next, they were orbiting space. (Can't remember what book that is specifically from!)  Loved me a bit of Clarice Bean, too.

- Korky Paul - Well, we know how much I love Winnie and Wilbur. No explanation needed, methinks. See my previous post for my strangely strong views.

- Martin Brown - Horrible Histories!!! My absolute favourite as a kid. These books were just so great for me, a lil nerd, to have fun history lessons in the comfort of my own home. Such an iconic style that you could spot absolutely anywhere. His drawings brought the facts to life and the funny speech marks (I assume they were him) made it feel so exciting and not at all like learning, which I think is the best form of learning. These books were like school on your own terms, and they would be nothing without Brown's illustrations.



- Brett Helquist - Known primarily for his A Series of Unfortunate Events illustrations, but he has also done some other great work. The illustrations within the books of ASoUE were few and far between unfortunately, but wow, they really are incredible. To the left is my favourite Helquist illustration. I think it is from the eighth book - The Hostile Hospital. His illustrations work really well in both black and white and colour, so it is difficult to decide which I like best. The work he did for the books' front covers were in colour and I always loved the dark tones of his colour palette, especially because each book's spine colour was incorporated in his front cover illustration. He perfectly captured the evil in Count Olaf and the heartbreak and determination in the Baudelaire children; whilst still making each sibling unique.

- Axel Scheffler - Combined with Julia Donaldson, he has such a sweet and soft style despite that what he is drawing is often grotesque, i.e. the Gruffalo. I love the smaller characters that he does - the ones in the background. I think he draws woodland creatures really well, especially lil rabbits. So cute. I love the natural colours he uses, particularly in The Gruffalo. The greens and browns made up quite a lot of his colour palette, but they were still vibrant tones of said colours - still fun and childlike. I love how he draws witches too, with the backdrop of that gorgeous dark blue night sky. I mean, I don't recall ever reading Room on the Broom, probably because my heart has always belonged to Winnie, but I admired from afar.

So that's it! Those peeps up there were my favourite growing up (and still now, obviously). I will be doing another post about my current favourite illustrators - ones who are working at the moment, ones who I have recently discovered. I think it's really interesting to see all their styles all together, because I don't think I have a particular preference of style - I just like what I like.

I'd be interested to know if you agree with any of my choices. Who is your favourite illustrator? Did I miss an important one out? (I'm sure I did!!) Let me know in the comments!

Bye x

* Right, let's get real here, there is a book stuck in my head and no one around me can remember. The day I find that book will be the single greatest day of my life. It was a book about a little girl who either wanted a haircut or didn't want to brush her hair. She then decided to just lob it all herself. Before you ask, no, it wasn't from Tony Ross' Little Princess series. My family desperately need to know what this book was called because my sister cut her own hair after reading this book (when she was a child) and it would be amazing to have it in our possession again for shaming purposes. For some reason, I have the colour green in my head - I think that the front cover had a green framing around the illustration of the girl with an awful fringe. My internet history is just me attempting to find this book and me mis-spelling gmail.com in a hurry, so I'd be grateful for any help. If you know the name of the book/author/illustrator, I would be extremely grateful if you told me in the comments!!

P.S. Why did my mother ever donate all of our childhood favourites to our local library/old primary school? Wish I still had them all!! I guess I am bitter glad that other children got to read them too...