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The Pooh Sketchbook
Drawings by Ernest H. Shepard for the Pooh stories by A. A. Milne.
- GenresArt
96 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1982
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60 people want to read
About the author
Ernest H. Shepard
461 books88 followersErnest Howard Shepard was an English artist and book illustrator. He was known especially for his human-like animals in illustrations for The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame and Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 17, 2019
I’m going in whole hog on educating myself on picture books as its my ardent desire to complete one myself and have been working in fits and starts for a while. So when an Instagram ad pointed me to the work of Leonard Marcus I reengaged with the Chicago Public Library to hunt down his, and all other books about picture book makers.
So yesterday I found this 1982 gift book at the library. It is chiefly images with little text: selected reproductions from a 1969 bequeathment by the Pooh illustrator Ernest Shepherd of his 1920s prepatory sketches for several Milne books. (Shepherd also went on to illustrate _The Wind in the Willows_!, a fact I surely knew when I was young) There is very little clear process here as I imagine this was a publishing gambit to resell a set of Pooh illustrations so mostly we get almost finished drawings. The introduction states Shepherd was a 20 year veteran illustrator so perhaps most of his prep work WAS faultless skeches that immediately were used with little change for a process that involved retracing over a finished drawing that had been coated w graphite on the back for a light tracing guide to be inked in. Maybe?
The drawings presented show a sureness in understanding Christopher Robin’s body which is so doll like, but there are some edits and searching for form in 360 for the stuffed characters like Eeyore and Pooh. It is interesting to see them deconstructed and how Shepherd relied on reducing them to big ovalish shapes tor their bodies, even as they were clearly drawn from Milne’s son’s real stuffed animals. (Bar trivia: Except for Pooh who was drawn from Shepherd’s own son’s teddy bear.) Still I wonder if there weren’t more false starts with the chatacters they might have shown us, but if it is as presented Shepherd had a great instinct for how to tip a head seen from behind to show quiet readable emotion.
Shepherd also drew from life from a trip to Milne’s Sussex property, and this is why I give this book a 4th star for its draftsmanship: Shepherd’s trees are museum quality drawings. It’s these tree drawings, architectural fragments, and landscape views he changed very little to use as the meat of the famous finished illustrations (always printed small in a corner of this edition for reference), just tucking Piglet and Kanga in as needed.
In the end its a great treat for a draftsman, even if it could have been greatly augmented by more perks of process. But damn those commercial illustrators before tv times sure knew how to draw!
So yesterday I found this 1982 gift book at the library. It is chiefly images with little text: selected reproductions from a 1969 bequeathment by the Pooh illustrator Ernest Shepherd of his 1920s prepatory sketches for several Milne books. (Shepherd also went on to illustrate _The Wind in the Willows_!, a fact I surely knew when I was young) There is very little clear process here as I imagine this was a publishing gambit to resell a set of Pooh illustrations so mostly we get almost finished drawings. The introduction states Shepherd was a 20 year veteran illustrator so perhaps most of his prep work WAS faultless skeches that immediately were used with little change for a process that involved retracing over a finished drawing that had been coated w graphite on the back for a light tracing guide to be inked in. Maybe?
The drawings presented show a sureness in understanding Christopher Robin’s body which is so doll like, but there are some edits and searching for form in 360 for the stuffed characters like Eeyore and Pooh. It is interesting to see them deconstructed and how Shepherd relied on reducing them to big ovalish shapes tor their bodies, even as they were clearly drawn from Milne’s son’s real stuffed animals. (Bar trivia: Except for Pooh who was drawn from Shepherd’s own son’s teddy bear.) Still I wonder if there weren’t more false starts with the chatacters they might have shown us, but if it is as presented Shepherd had a great instinct for how to tip a head seen from behind to show quiet readable emotion.
Shepherd also drew from life from a trip to Milne’s Sussex property, and this is why I give this book a 4th star for its draftsmanship: Shepherd’s trees are museum quality drawings. It’s these tree drawings, architectural fragments, and landscape views he changed very little to use as the meat of the famous finished illustrations (always printed small in a corner of this edition for reference), just tucking Piglet and Kanga in as needed.
In the end its a great treat for a draftsman, even if it could have been greatly augmented by more perks of process. But damn those commercial illustrators before tv times sure knew how to draw!
September 14, 2009
I great peek at the preliminary drawings of Ernest H. Shepard.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews