(Or Ages Dark & Light) – By John Howe
New books are always a welcome event, especially as they provide an excuse to briefly escape from the studio and get out into the rest of the world a moment. (Like many illustrators, the time spent proportionately in the former as opposed to the latter is sadly inferior in quantity; quality, of course, not being issue open to debate or even wise to contemplate.)
And, yet another chance to set thoughts to paper. A portion of this is my personal ramblings for the book itself, but has been considerably restructured and augmented thanks to the kind prodding (ignore illustrator’s hesitations, uncertainty, unsureness, doubt, irresolution, indecision, equivocation, vacillation, waffling, wavering, second thoughts, dithering, stalling, dawdling, temporization, delay, reluctance, disinclination, unease, and dubiety too) and pertinent questions (“Can you repeat that? Intelligibly. Please?”) of Ruth Prickett at Illustration Magazine. See their FALL 2007 issue. Buy a copy. Subscribe. (Buy a back copy – there is a lovely article in the Spring 2007 issue which should be in the libraries of all self-respecting admirers of Mervyn Peake.) [More]
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A FEW WORDS, A FEW PICTURES (Or Determining How Many Words a Picture is Really Worth at Current Market Value)
By John Howe
I’ve often considered that artists should be subject to restraining orders, forbidding them to approach any closer than 100 yards to writing about their ownwork. Alas, I am a convicted and incurable recidivist, and like most of my earnest colleagues, am already serving a life sentence, so a few words won’t hurt.
Those of you who’ve had the pleasure (or the misfortune) of meeting me will likely know I feel very strongly about this whole business of making pictures. (Deep inside me is a thoroughly repressed professor, chained up and living on bread and water.)
So, when offered the opportunity to do a book where I could actually say what I think, I was not going to keep my mouth shut or my typing fingers idle. I spent this spring chained up and living on bread and water, fingers madly dancing their two-step over my keyboard typing words in a frenzy of ardent application (I am an out-of-touch-typist at best), handed it all over to the editor and… well, nothing. That’s publishing. The six months separating the frenzy of creation and revision from actual publication are often disconcerting. Now that interview time is coming around, I’ve forgotten most of what I wrote. [More]
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Or How All Good Things Come to an End
John Howe writes: I confess to being a creature of habit. Good and bad, of course, but nevertheless…
Closing weekend this weekend in Saint-Ursanne. The banners and statues will remain in place until the end of September, but the rest will be packed away.
Also, given that Alan Lee will be there on the Sunday, a certain amount of congestion is definitely going to occur. I think he will remember his first visit to Switzerland as being… very busy.
The organizers have edited a lovely series of postcards (yes, I know it makes little sense to have these at the END of the exhibition, but put it down to my pain-in-the-neck attitude concerning quality and atmosphere.) They can be ordered via the official site. Most of the photos are courtesy of (the very talented) professional photographer Darrin Vanselow.
Click here to view the postcardsAt any rate, as a creature of habit, I initially found difficult the requirements of weekly driving to Saint-Ursanne as the statues were taking shape. Now that I no longer need to, I awake before dawn Tuesday mornings wondering just what it is that’s missing. Initially I looked with some dismay at my “days-John-Howe-present” calendar, now that my presence is not required, I find that I miss being dragged out of my lair. (On the other hand, I’ve finally realized why I don’t teach or give courses on a regular basis.)
I was intending to write something witty and philosophical about how all good things must have an ending, but a certain precipitation of things-to-do has left me high and dry, well above the tideline of idle creativity. Also, with the two books appearing this fall, the curiously dismaying lull that follows delivery and proofreading is now nearly over as the publishing dates draw closer and most spare moments are consumed by details-to-supply, resized-images-to-send and articles-to-go-over just in case I-didn’t-mean-to-say-exactly-that.
Actually, just now I am struggling with essential trivia like just how much was the fine that the Greek court condemned Heinrich Schliemann to pay to the Turkish authorities for smuggling Priam’s Treasure out of Troy under his wife’s red shawl. One source says 5000 dollars, another says 50,000 francs (but WHICH “francs”, or are these the piasters that Turkey used prior to switching to lira, about the same time the judgement was made) or 10,000 francs (or dollars, it depends). And how much is that worth in today’s currency?
Or what year was it in A.D. 1?
Or why do historians call the Phoenicians a “merchant race”? (Is that ALL they did? Are we a “computer race”?) or seem to think the inhabitants of Mohenjo-daro were dull because their bricks are all the same size?
Or more practical matters, such as how much of the face of the northernmost colossus of Memnon was intact before Napoleon’s troops decided it would be perfect for target practice? (As for the one Severus Septimus so summarily stacked up again, which of the blocks are made of sandstone and which of quartzite? And will my editor pay my trip to go see if I asked politely?) Or what might the ceremonial fire-bowl of a high priest of Cahokia have really looked like, or a view of Ultima Thule? How do you walk a songline? What colour was Eve’s hair, and how many legs did that pesky serpent have? Could anyone read rongorongo? Who wrote the letter from Prester John? How many towers in storied Camelot, and how far by boat to Avalon?
Where have all the unicorns gone?
So, with all these interrogations buzzing like pesky bees around (and in) my little head, this witty and philosophical newsletter will not be written. (If I can remember one-tenth of what I’ll have written for the book at hand, I’ll be amply satisfied.)
Thankfully, there are other distractions.
Saint-Ursanne will be auctioning off the sculptures and the banners, as well as the ink-jet prints from the Cloister. A 25-foot fern was JUST what your garden needed? There still might be room in the garage for a 75-foot dragon? That banner of Gollum would be just perfect in the stairwell? Now’s your chance, the auction is here. Starting once the show closes, and ending on September 30th. (The auction pages will be in English, French and German. If they are not quite ready by the time this goes on line, they will be very shortly.)
See you in a few weeks.
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JUST BETWEEN US
Or A Few Words and Some Pictures
By John Howe
At rather a loss as to what to actually write for this newsletter, I’ve fallen back on the tried and true method of using something I’ve written before. (I have an excuse, I am working very assiduously writing texts for another book.)
Following is the introduction from FANTASY ART WORKSHOP, just so you won’t have to read it IN the bookshop come October, and can get directly to Terry Gilliam’s fantastic foreword and Alan Lee’s poetical afterword. (In between there are a few pictures, you can skip those if need be.)
Just Between Us
I wanted to call this book “How to Draw Like Me It’s A Cinch Anybody Can Do It”, but the editors seem strangely reticent. (They said it was too long, so we agreed on a different choice of words.)
It’s almost what the book is all about, but not quite. I will ramble on endlessly about how I draw and paint, but it’s REALLY all about how to draw like YOU. If you’re reading this introduction, and wondering if this would be money well spent, I’ll try to save you some time.
If you know how to draw already and you are quite satisfied with the results, then this book is not really for you.
If you feel figurative and narrative imagery is dull, this book is not for you.
If you feel that mythology and fantasy have little to say to our modern world, then this book is most definitely not for you.
If you are searching for off-the-shelf methods and surefire technical tricks of the trade, then this book is not for you.
If you believe pictures should speak for themselves, I’m tempted to tell you to buy it; there is an abundance of loquacious imagery inside.
However…
If you find your mind is so full of images that they keep escaping unbidden from your fingertips, then this book may be for you.
If you are unsure of the direction your artwork wishes to take, but know you should be heading somewhere, then this book may be a signpost of a kind for your journey.
If you find pleasure in telling stories in pictures, then this book may help you.
If life has obliged you to leave pages of yourself unturned, and you’d feel better with a little company for a chapter or two, then perhaps this book is for you.
I should say right from the start that I dislike most “How To…” books, unless they are purely technical, and concern themselves spark plugs, hot water pipes or computer software.. I dislike the temptation to reduce an intuitive and intensely personal process to a series of steps or a recipe. I am dubious of assemblages of rectangles and ovals magically becoming horses, tigers or trees. I moan when I see famous paintings divided into arbitrary circles, triangles and (fool’s-)golden means.
They reduce drawing to a method, in exactly the same fashion that first-graders learn to form legible letters – they are the equivalent of row upon row of vertical strokes, circles and diagonals.. Naturally, you will learn to write legibly, but you may not learn to express yourself.
Drawing is giving oneself up to an exercise with no immediate application. It is a form of communion with your subject, be it in front of you or in your head. Expertise and skill go hand in hand with your desire to express feelings, to tell stories, to create and share worlds.
It’s personal.
So, I have tried to find the words to say how I feel. With each picture being worth a thousand, that makes quite a few. The editors have had to seriously cut their number, and I’m grateful to them for allowing my thoughts such unruly growth, only pruning when necessary.
This book is personal too. I can only speak for myself, not for illustration theory. Nor am I trying to speak to some fictitious potential average buyer/reader.
If I could, I would rewrite this book for each one of you, and include a couple of chapters of your work. Of course, this isn’t possible, so I beg your indulgence.
Inside, you’ll find a first section that talks about how I get along with the Muse and find my inspiration (wherever and however I can), the second about what materials and techniques I use and how I use them (as best I can).
A third looks at a selection of my work, with step-by-step case studies to give blow-by-blow accounts of the process (this is the book’s reality show slice of life, complete with commissioning editors, deadlines and last-minute deliveries), while the fifth section deals with presenting your work and a last bit about the varied fields illustration can lead you to wander in.
And, lastly, to my comrades-in-art and fellow illustrators, I beg your indulgence also for this foray into the dreaded land of Explanation and the perilous realm of Reason, momentarily forsaking the foggy shores of Inspiration. I am speaking only for myself, not for my profession. All of you have your own voices. (But buy the book anyway.)
TALKING AGAIN
Otherwise, I’d like to mention a couple of recent interviews. (Please do go read them, the authors deserve every encouragement for patiently dealing with my inconsistencies and tardiness with a rare brand of perseverance.
Interview done in Saint-Ursanne with Pieter Collier, at the Tolkien Library.
This one is very short and tongue-in-cheek, on the LCSV4 site.
And while we are on the subject of talking to strangers, here’s another on-line interview: Middle Ages Meets Middle-Earth.
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BEWILDERED AND BEMUSED
Or the True Nature of Glamour
Today, the word “glamour” is more closely associated with ’50’s film starlets and glossy magazines than with its original meaning.
Here is what the dictionaries say:
GLAMOUR:
1720, “magic, enchantment” (especially in phrase to cast the glamour), a variant of Scot. gramarye “magic, enchantment, spell,” alt. of Eng. grammar (q.v.) with a medieval sense of “any sort of scholarship, especially occult learning.” Popularized by the writings of Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832). Sense of “magical beauty, alluring charm” first recorded 1840. Glamorous can be dated to 1882 (slang shortening glam first attested 1936); glamorize is dated 1936.
The etymology is intriguing and a little frustrating. “Gammayre” is almost systematically listed as a Sottish variant on “grammar” (14th century), which is of course from Greek grammatike tekhne ‘art of letters’, from gramma ‘letter of the alphabet’. Not much to do with spells, but more with spelling. Hmmm… spells and spelling… it’s tempting, but a bit of a long-jump of faith, casting spells is not really like spelling correctly, despite the magic of putting names to things. [More]
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With kind permission John Howe has allowed us to re-print his newsletter entries as they are released. Take a look at the latest edition!
The Rest of the Rest – I realize I have been remiss is announcing events in Saint-Ursanne – actually I’ve been a little too busy with what I’ve been doing to think about announcing what I will be doing…
Here are the rest of the dates:
AUGUST 10th Conference/debate With François Rouiller, author & illustrator The theme will be the many faces of Heroes in fantasy. Hotel La Cigogne, 8:00 p.m.
AUGUST 11th Signing session At the cloister. This will begin at 2:00 p.m. and likely last a couple of hours. Normally, we will distribute numbered tickets for a dozen signatures with drawings, the remainder will be signatures only.
AUGUST 23rd Conference/debate Medieval fantasy art, with Sara Petrucci. Restaurant de l’Ours, 7:00 p.m.
SEPTEMBER 1st Conference/debate Fantasy bestiary, with Sara Petrucci. Hotel de la Demi-Lune, 6:30 p.m.
SEPTEMBER 2nd Signing session This will be a joint signature session with Alan LEE, so it’s possible it will turn into a bit of a marathon. This will be Alan’s first (but hopefully not last) visit to Switzerland. The cloister: starting at 2:00 p.m. John
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