Review: The Four Seasons of Brambly Hedge

  I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it on the blog before, but I love picture books. Super-detailed, nature-inspired, Beatrix-Potter-esque ones especially. So I expected to like the Brambly Hedge books, which are pretty much the definition of “super-detailed, nature-inspired, and Beatrix-Potter-esque”. I actually worried that they’d be too much like Beatrix Potter, and I’d waste an evening reading rip-offs.

  Luckily for me, Brambly Hedge isn’t a rip-off. It’s more cutesy, and not as dark as, say, The Tale of Mr. Todd, where a bunch of baby rabbits are kidnapped and stuffed into a stove. But the books are full of details about life in the hedge. The mice run a dairy mill and a flour mill, work paw-driven looms, and dig interconnected tunnels between their houses when it snows. It’s all incredibly accurate, and apparently the author/illustrator, Jill Barklem, spent years researching old agricultural practices to make sure she got the details right.

  The illustrations are also incredibly detailed--and delicious. They’re too many pies, cakes, and puddings to count, and I think the food actually ended up being my favorite part of the whole book. I mean, how can you resist descriptions like these?

  “Mrs. Crustybread baked a huge hazelnut cake with layers of thick cream, and Wilfred’s mother decorated it. Mrs. Apple made some of her special primrose puddings.”

--Spring Story

  “All the kitchens along Brambly Hedge were warm and busy. Hot soups, punches and puddings bubbled, and in the ovens pies browned and sizzled.”

--Winter Story

 And yes, it’s always the girl mice who end up doing the cooking, but I almost don’t care because if I could move to Brambly Hedge, I would.

 The Four Seasons of Brambly Hedge includes the first four books in the series and an interview with Jill Barklem, where she talks about her inspirations and creative process. It’s perfect for curling up with after a tough week (like I did) or if you’re looking for a book that makes you hungry. If you like picture books, I can almost guarantee you’ll fall in love with this one.

Away From My Desk

   I’ll admit it: even though I’m not officially doing NaNoWriMo, I’ve been using it as an excuse to take a break from blogging, and I’m not ashamed. Not even a little bit. But I thought that, since there’s such a huge focus on writing this month, now might be the right time to take a break and post about some of the non-writing-related things I’ve been doing.

Knitting:

   I’m a slow knitter. And by that, I mean I’m a lazy knitter: I started a scarf back in October (or maybe in September) and it’s not even half-done yet. I love doing something that’s craftier and more outside my head, though, and it’s been wonderful to have a hobby that’s not related to writing in some way. What’s even more wonderful is watching season 11 of Supernatural while knitting a Harry Potter-themed scarf. (Pottermore sorted me into Gryffindor, so obviously my scarf is red and gold.)

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Watching sitcoms:

   One of my greatest ambitions in life is to write a book that’s as much like a sitcom as possible. For now, I just binge watch my favorites. At the moment they’re Malcolm in the Middle and Grounded for Life. I also adore Parks and Rec.

Discovering new artists:

   On Pinterest and Tumblr, as usual. I’ll have to cook up some new Artist Spotlight posts soon; there’s almost too much great work to share. Behold:

Alice B. Preston

John Austen

Discovering a new kind of lemonade:

    Rose lemonade! The brand I tried wasn’t very sweet at all, but still fizzy and delicious. Pair that with a strawberries n’ cream cupcake and I was set for the rest of the afternoon.

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Browsing bookstores:

   I have a confession to make—I’m one of those horrible people who will choose Amazon over my local independent bookstore almost every time. Mostly because I love being able to track down just about any book with a search engine.

   But I also love browsing, and since there’s a bookstore near the college where my younger sister takes a physics class, we decided to check it out. We ended up staying there at least an hour, and I even bought two books—How to Be a Heroine for me, and Jellicoe Road as an early Christmas present for her. The store also had shelves full of gorgeous moleskin notebooks and enough secondhand books to take up the whole upper floor. I’ll definitely be going back—probably to do Christmas shopping.

                                            

Artist Spotlight: Mabel Lucie Attwell

In some ways, Mabel Lucie Attwell’s illustrations remind me of Honor C. Appleton’s. Adorable children? Check. Pastel colors? Check. Dripping with nostalgia? Check. Absolutely whimsical and gorgeous? Check!

 

The Facts:

 

Born: June 4th, 1879.

 

Studied: At Heatherley School of Fine Art and Saint Martin’s School of Art, though she left both schools before she completing her courses.

 

Illustrated: Magazines, postcards, books like Mother Goose and Hans Andersen’s Fairy Tales, calendars, and even crockery (she created a tea set inspired by her illustrations).

 

Known for: Cute and whimsical drawings of children and fairies. She was a household name in the 1920s.

 

Died: November 5th, 1964.

For this post, I want to focus on her illustrations of Peter Pan, which she created for an abridged version of the story published in 1921. There’s a childlike quality to her pictures that works just beautifully. Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

 

 

 

 

 

Artist Spotlight: Warwick Goble

Gah! It’s been ages since I put together an artist spotlight. Today, I decided to showcase Warwick Goble. I’ve seen plenty of his pictures, especially around Pinterest, but didn’t get curious about the man himself until a few days ago. Here are the stats…

Born: November 22, 1862 in Dalton, north London.

Studied: At the City of London School and Westminster School of Art.

Illustrated: Children’s books with titles like The Book of Fairy Poetry and Tod of the Fens. You can’t get much better than that.

Known for: An interest in Indian and Japanese fairy tales.

Died: January 22, 1943 in Surrey, England.

…And here are the pictures. Enjoy!

The Water Babies (1909)

From The Book of Fairy Poetry (1920)

The Frog Prince

Folk Tales of Bengal (1912)

Urashima Taro

Artist Spotlight: Honor C. Appleton

Honor Charlotte Appleton was born on the 4^th of February, 1879 in Brighton, England. She studied art at the Royal Academy and went on to illustrate more than 100 books, including editions of Charles Perrault’s and Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales. She died in 1951.

…And that’s about all the information I could find online—Honor Appleton doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page. I discovered one of her illustrations (the first one below) in Fairy Tales from Hans Christian Andersen, the same book that introduced me to Kay Nielsen. Her paintings have a very delicate style, and to be honest, sometimes it’s a little too sweet for my taste. Still, her Snow Queen will always be my favorite. 

The Snow Queen

The Princess and the Pea

Little Red Riding Hood

The Little Mermaid

P.S. Gobs and gobs of thanks to everyone who commented on my last post—your tips and encouragement were exactly what I needed.

Artist Spotlight: A Guest Post by Kelsey Hammersley

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    Hey guys! For this spotlight, I thought it would be neat to get an actual artist’s perspective on what goes into creating fairy tale illustrations. I've admired Kelsey’s artwork for a long time, and I’m so happy to feature her here! If you like her post, be sure to check out her blog and her Tumblr. 

    

First of all, I'd like to thank Alex for inviting me to write a guest post for Third Star to the Right! I've never guest blogged anywhere, so needless to say, this a squee-worthy experience for me. I love seeing Alex's artist spotlights on here (plus all of her pretty fairy tale pins on Pinterest), so I thought I would talk a bit about the impact fairy tales have made on my art.

Oh, and just so you know, my name is Kelsey, I live in Ohio, and I am a Christian artist who's interested in going into illustration.

Fairy tales have been a huge influence and inspiration to me over the years. The first real artwork I encountered as a child was H.J. Ford's illustrations from the Andrew Lang Color Fairy Books. I actually picked out the fairy tales I wanted to read based on how pretty or intriguing their illustrations were. I discovered some of my absolute favorite artists while browsing through the illustration gallery of the fairy tale site Sur La Lune Fairy Tales--artists like Arthur Rackham, Kay Nielsen, Edmund Dulac, and Walter Crane. I can't quite pinpoint what it is about fairy tales that attracts me so, but I think part of it is their hopeful examples of perseverance through adversity, along with how the tales ignite the imagination.

The Enchanted Wreath by Kelsey Hammersley

For creating my fairy tale-esque illustrations, my ideas tend to start with a vague sense of the emotion I want to get across and the style I want to use. I try to hold onto that feeling as I work on the project. Emotion plays an important part in art for me; I want to create something beautiful, but I also want it to have meaning, something that people can connect with. The method that works best for me right now for creating paintings is to start off with an accurate pencil sketch as a base. Getting the drawing down right can be pretty tedious for me (the shading and the coloring are my favorite parts) but it helps me a lot in the long run by (ideally) sparing me from making big adjustments when I'm further into a painting. Once I'm done fiddling with the drawing, I clean up the pencil marks as much as possible so that the graphite won't mix in with the color too much and make it muddy. When adding in the paint, I tend to go through a lot of trial and error, playing around with the project and doubting myself--basically jumping from This is so much fun!!!! to I am a horrible artist. I can't finish this. But perseverance really does pay off. 

Lately I've really been inspired by the work of Albrecht Durer, particularly his woodcuts and engravings. I love how the subjects in his prints push forward into space. My linework is frequently inspired by Arthur Rackham, who's pretty much my favorite artist. My ambition in art is to both use my imagination and take inspiration from the beauty of the world around me--and hopefully inspire others in the same way that fairy tales and their illustrations have inspired me.

I'll finish off with a few tips for other aspiring artists, or basically anyone who wants to get better at drawing. Tip #1: Look at the work of other artists. Better yet, practice by copying works of the masters. You notice and learn so much about something when you try drawing it yourself. Tip #2: Take classes, or get lessons if you can. If this isn't an option, there's a wealth of online tutorials out there. I know plenty of completely self-taught artists have found success, but getting advice from other artists is a great way to encounter new ideas that you would be hard-pressed to happen across on your own. It's kind of like having someone else read your writing in order to figure out where you could improve. Sometimes you need a fresh set of eyes, or a fresh set of ideas. Tip #3: Keep drawing! The best way to learn is to try. Even if you make mistakes (and mistakes are inevitable), with each attempt you make, you will see improvement.

Thanks again, Alex, for hosting me here! :)

Artist Spotlight: Alice B. Woodward

The Peter Pan Picture Book (1907)

Or, rather, Spotlight: The Peter Pan Picture Book, illustrated by Alice B. Woodward. The Peter Pan Picture Book was based on the original 1904 production of J.M. Barrie’s play and published in 1907, four years before his own novelization, Peter and Wendy. Alice B. Woodward created 28 colored plates for the book, which remained so popular it didn’t go out of print until 1982. At the time she was already a well-known artist, illustrating both children’s books and scientific papers. 

When it comes to Peter Pan, Alice B. Woodward’s illustrations are some of my favorites. 
 They capture the feel of the story perfectly, whether it’s adventurous, magical, creepy, or tragic. Take a look and see what you think!

Artist Spotlight: Elenore Abbott

“Elenore Abbott loves her fairy tales as one who never grew up, and no child who receives such a book will be disappointed. When twelve ravishing princesses go to the ball--twelve, each more beautiful than the last, will be found clothed in gowns that befit a princess of fairy land.”

--Eva Nagel Wolf

'The Twelve Dancing Princesses'

This time around, I’m spotlighting someone new--I've drooled over Kay Nielsen’s work for years, but Elenore Abbott is a recent obsession (as in about a week before I decided to write this post recent). Obviously, I haven’t discovered as many of her illustrations yet, but the ones I have seen are lovely. 

Elenore Plaisted Abbott was born in 1875 in Lincoln, Maine. She studied art in Paris (among other places), where her work was exhibited at the Academie des Beaux Arts. In 1911 she moved to Rose Valley, Pennsylvania with her husband, C. Yarnall Abbott. Elenore painted their house there Bermuda pink. She also sold several of her paintings to finance the construction of the Rose Valley swimming pool in 1928. She died in 1935. 

'The Wild Swans'

'The Goose Girl at the Well'

'The Little Mermaid'

'The Two Brothers'

'Cinderella'


The last picture is actually from Treasure Island, but I couldn’t resist including it. It still has a very fairy tale look. 

So, what have you discovered this week? A new book? Some gorgeous illustrations? As always, I’d love to hear about your favorite artists. And let me know in the comments if you have any recommendations for future spotlights!

Artist Spotlight: Kay Nielsen

'East of the Sun and West of the Moon'

 I've always loved fairy tales and fairy tale art, and over the years I've discovered a multitude of fantastic fairy tale illustrators. Their work has influenced my own imagination and stories, probably more than I know. Going into the new year, I’ll be putting together a series of posts showcasing some of my favorite artists and their work. I don’t have a degree in either art or folklore (point of fact, I don’t have a degree in ANYTHING yet), and these posts are more pretty picture appreciation than anything else. Hopefully, though, they’ll be inspiring…and a lot of fun. First up is one of my absolute favorite illustrators, ever--Kay Nielsen. 

   A little bit of background: Kay Nielsen (1886-1957) was born into a family of actors in Copenhagen, Denmark. During the ‘Golden Age’ of fairy tale illustration, he illustrated stories from the Grimm brothers, Hans Christian Anderson, and Charles Perrault, among others. He also provided concept art for Walt Disney’s Fantasia and an early version of The Little Mermaid. 

I first came across his work in an edition of Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tales illustrated by multiple artists. Lately I’ve been unearthing even more, thanks to the wonders of Pinterest. Kay Nielsen’s illustrations have stuck with me for a couple of reasons, number one being that there's such a wonderful strangeness to them. Looking at them feels like looking into a dollhouse or a snow globe--you can’t help but study every detail. Here are some of my favorites.

    

'The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep'

concept art for the 'Night on Bald Mountain' sequence in Fantasia

'Rapunzel'

'The Steadfast Tin Soldier'

    

'Brother and Sister'

    

'The Twelve Dancing Princesses'

 From a never-published edition of 'The Arabian Nights'. The pictures didn't come to light until years after his death

 Gorgeous, right? I had a ball writing this post, and I’d love to know about your favorite artists. Do you have any recommendations for another spotlight? Let me know in the comments!