There was an old lady

One of my favourite books growing up had to be There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. I’ve seen it done in a variety of forms since, and it never fails to interest kids when I read it in storytime, but a new version put out by Mutt Ink with illustrations by Jeremy Holmes is sure to entice readers back to the tale, even if they’ve long since gone past the reading level.  The latest version is a flip book of sorts, with the old lady’s head remaining throughout and the contents of her stomach as she swallows various objects visible as you flip through the book.

You can see more of the book here, as well as other fascinating books in the collection.

Haida Manga

Manga, or the art of Japanese animation, is growing  more popular everyday, so it’s no surprise that artists of different cultures would take on the challenge of creating their own versions of Manga.

Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas is a Canadian artist who has worked in the Haida tradition of art his whole life, and is believed to be the artist responsible for the Haida Manga movement which began with his first book of the kind called A Tale of Two Shaman in 2001.  It is a fabulous combination of design that still allows the distinct look of Canadian Haida artwork with the bold animation style of Manga.  A perfect pairing, I think.

You can see an animated version of one of Yahgulanaas’ pieces called Flight of the Hummingbird here:

Or you can follow along with one of his most recent works called HaidaCosmic right here.

He is truly a gifted artist and the combination of the two artforms is fascinating.  What’s next for manga?

Drawing 101

Kids often come to the front desk and ask us for books about drawing, and we keep a nice selection of books on the subject, from drawing fairies to dogs to fancy cars.  Just the other night, a young girl and her mother spent an evening in the air conditioned library, using our art books as inspiration for their work.  They came with markers, sketch pads and craft supplies and came up with these great pictures as a result.

I came across a fun instructional video on how to draw simple cartoon faces that might inspire the young artist in your home (or even yourself)!  Who knew it was so simple?

Come in and pick up an art book and be inspired to learn to draw!

Invisible books

We have all read books where an author will quote from another book or will just mention a book title as a way of either furthering their own plot or revealing something about a character (as in, he reads books about architectural design).  But these book titles are not always authentic. Either an author just can’t find a book that would make sense to the reference, or it is easier to make up a title which would sound authentic.

The Invisible Library is a great blog which has taken it upon itself to list all of these books that are not real, but are referenced in some form of fiction.  It is fascinating to read the titles,  many of which sound perfectly reasonable (and interesting.)  And now, INK illustration has gone one step further by finishing up a gallery exhibition that displays fake book covers representing some of the titles from the Invisible Library list, along with book flaps written by real authors.  You can see more of the work here.

I wonder if the authors who wrote the fake book titles into their works ever thought they’d see an actual hard copy of the work? Life imitating art?  Or art imitating life?

Sometimes, we just want to read

I came across an adorable and creative little blog that tells stories (of teeth, mind you) with just a series of photos.  This little tale, which begins above, is called “Some Afternoon Mellow”. Take your time and scroll through the pictures.  They are simple and yet so charming that you can’t help but smile.  The blog and photos are the wonderful work of artist Inhae Lee who tells the story of the little tooth that just showed up at her door one day. Please take a look at the rest of her site while you are there.  Very creative!

Paper Quilling

I find the art of paper quilling absolutely fascinating.  That someone can create such beautiful pieces simply from rolling paper and gluing it onto a larger work (I’m aware it is MUCH more complicated than this), is thrilling.  But in all my travels, I have only seen quilling in its utmost simplistic form.  Imagine my delight when I ran across an artists who loves quilling, typography and highly-detailed work.  her name is Yulia Brodskaya and she does something she calls “papergraphics”.  Her images are highly sought out for advertising as well as their artistic appeal.  You may have even seen her work in magazines or on television.

Here are a few samples of her lovely work.  You can see more of her work as well as her other interests on her website here.

If you want to know more about paper quilling, there are many great websites to get you started.  One really good resource is a paper quilling ideas and patterns page which gives detailed basic shapes and also ideas on how to use those shapes.   A Google book search came up with this great book by Malinda Johnston called Paper Quilling. You can see detailed pages of the book here and get a feel for projects she introduces in her book.  We have this book in our library, so if you are interested in trying something new, pop in and check it out.

There are also countless blogs devoted to the art of paper quilling.  I find blogs will keep you up to date on fresh ideas, so it’s worth looking these once in a while if you are getting into the art.

http://quilling.blogspot.com/

http://paperquilling.wordpress.com/

http://www.paperquillingart.com/?q=blog