Making A List...and checking it, like, forty billion times....

Another day another bloggy postie thing...plus (now that I've retrieved some basic brain function) some spelling corrections on previous posts....pfff......

Hello! Again :) So - I promised a post about my arty influences, amongst other things, which set me to thinking and some list-making as a result. I do like my lists - I make mental (probably really QUITE mental) lists ALL the time....dumb stuff like top 10 movies/comedies/tv shows/sandwiches...you know.....VITAL stuff. *ahem*. SO - it's not unusual for me to sit down and make an actual, on paper list of favourite artists, conveniently enabled by my standard levels of insomnia. Only when I added a third sheet of paper did I realise that mebbe I should split this thing up into a few posts as a preferable option to an all-in-one epic that would put War & Peace to shame (in word-count at least!). Yuh-huh. So I shufftied back into the dim recesses of my brain and chose a couple of early influences from my childhood books that I STILLL love and always will.

Okee- my mum bought me some AWESOME books when I was a kid and she was heavily influenced in her purchases by the book illustrations. After sitting and listening to her read the stories - and when I was older, reading along with her - we'd take time to talk about the pictures...how they made me feel, what I thought about the colours and art styles... It may sound like maybe a tedious weird parent school lesson thing, but it was genuinely awesome - loved it  - and it really taught me to be observant and think about how art made me feel. One of the books I loved the most was a selection of Shakespeare stories illustrated by Victor Ambrus.

 

There are a lot of books that he's illustrated, but a lot of people know his work from seeing him sketch on the UK Channel 4 series "Time Team"...awesome stuff. He has such a distinctive style which I just love. It's a dream of mine that one day I'll own a beautiful gorgeous original piece of his work which I can hug. 

 

I love his use of organic form - his use of circles and curves.  There's an element of warmth to the images - no matter what they are, and a hint of comedy I think? Yeah? And HOW lovely is his Lady Macbeth?

So yep - this book and these illustrations are some of my early influences - hope you like them. Honestly - there are so many it'll take me ages to go through them....best done bit by bit. I think. Probably. I'll add another post later as I feel I have some rambling left in me.... Mwah! x

  ps - if you want to enjoy more of Mr Ambrus's awesome work you can drink up the lovely at this site:

http://www.victorambrus.com/Home.html