A Is for Art

Long a neglected stepchild of the art world, children’s book illustration is enjoying a golden age of artistry, technology, commercial success and prestige.

Like many trends, this one started with the baby boomers. When members of the postwar generation began having kids, they had the money and desire to expose them to more books than they had known as children. They bought their old favorites, like “Curious George” and “Goodnight Moon,” but demand also swelled for books that would reflect the modern, multicultural age.

“This was an upscale, sophisticated market,” says Lin Oliver, executive director of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, which ended a four-day conference in Century City on Tuesday. “People were willing to buy books instead of checking books out of the library. And they were willing to buy high-quality picture books.” Enter the computer. Color printing became much less expensive, and children’s book publishers went on the lookout for artists with unique visions.

“One of the most difficult things in this business is to get a style,” author-illustrator David Wisniewski told the conference. A former circus clown who began doing books in 1990, Wisniewski has made his reputation as “the king of cut paper,” cutting and folding pieces of colored paper to fashion illustrations for his original epic tales set in ancient times. The 3-D paper collage is then photographed for the book.

Wisniewski has been well-rewarded for his dramatic, moody style. In 1997, he won the illustrator’s highest honor, the Caldecott Medal, for “Golem.”

The computer also has become a new tool for artists. With its ability to layer different versions of an illustration and with the huge variety of colors and textures available, computers and software have set artists free to develop their work.

Illustrator Joy Allen starts with a rough sketch, scans it into a computer and refines it on the screen. Her whimsical pictures look hand-painted; she says she gains spontaneity by using the computer.

“I don’t lose the looseness, that life you get from a rough sketch. I can change the color of a girl’s dress or of a table cloth without losing what I had.” In her two years in the field, Allen, a former art director of a publishing company, has illustrated eight educational picture books and four book covers, and has provided art for 13 magazines.

Not all artists approve of using computers to create children’s art. Robert Sabuta, who won the society’s Golden Kite illustrated book award this year for “The Paper Dragon,” says that “oftentimes people confuse the computer with making art instead of just using it as a tool,” and the results look like computer graphics instead of art by human beings.

*

Several observers say that with children’s book sales increasing and gaining new respect in the publishing field, the overall quality of illustrations has improved dramatically. Oliver went so far as to say that “the line between illustrators and fine artists has dissolved.” In any case, she added, “now, more and more fine artists want to work in the field.”

Part of the new attraction for artists is that picture books, once only for pre- and early readers, now are being written for older children, allowing for more sophisticated stories.

For some illustrators, the children’s book market is one of many avenues to pursue, along with greeting cards and company brochures. But for others, children’s illustration is their first and only love.

“I’m stuck in a certain age of thinking,” aspiring illustrator Yong Chul Park, a student at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, said at the conference. “I always think of myself as an overgrown child.”

A Korean immigrant, Park said his illustrations always come from stories in his mind that he finds hard to tell in words because of his limited English. He too scans sketches into a computer and uses the language of technology to transform them into complex, evocative illustrations. Park was one of many artists, published and unpublished, who displayed their art at the conference in hopes of finding work as illustrators.

Now that some children’s illustrations are being labeled “fine art,” galleries are getting into the act. Selling originals and lithographs of children’s book art, Storyopolis in Los Angeles and Every Picture Tells a Story in Los Angeles are among the businesses that have found a niche among adults who love the accessibility and the relatively low prices of illustrations.

“Our clients are interested in reconnecting with images from their past, from the simplicity of their childhood, from artwork in books that provide a sense of solace and pure beauty,” says Storyopolis co-founder Dawn Heinrichs.

At Every Picture, a Garth Williams lithograph from “Charlotte’s Web” sells for $1,500; a Maurice Sendak limited edition sells for about the same price. Jules Feiffer originals range from $800 to as high as $3,500 for an original from “The Phantom Tollbooth.”

“These illustrations are much more reasonable financially than art in the ‘fine art’ galleries,” says Every Picture gallery manager Laurie Grosso.

Meanwhile, Oliver said, the society has raised money to establish a museum of children’s book art and is looking for a location. “We will be showing collectible children’s art as well as putting on special exhibits, such as showing how a picture book evolves.”

*

How much of the gold from this golden age is going to the illustrators themselves? Some.

Caldecott winner Wisniewski says it is possible to make a good living, but that it’s hard work, especially for the vast majority of illustrators who do not win national prizes. “I had a fine critical reputation but, until the Caldecott, not much in sales,” he recalls. “Unless you hit it big with a ‘Where’s Waldo?’ it’s a challenge. I do a lot of public speaking.”

Still, the publication of well-illustrated children’s books is expected to continue. In her annual speech on the state of children’s publishing, Connie Epstein, author of “The Art of Writing for Children,” said Sunday that publishers will print about the same number of picture books this year as last year.

She noted that some publishers are expressing concerns that too many children’s books already are being produced. But, she said, they seem to want more multicultural books, more “fractured fairy tales” such as “The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs” and more nonfiction. Also, due again to improved printing technology, books on famous artists are in demand.

And of course, she said, publishers are ever on the lookout for books with what she calls “child appeal,” books that children, and not necessarily their parents, will respond to and that will stay on bookstore and library shelves year after year after year.

The purpose of all this fuss over artwork is simply to attract children to books.

“Over all,” said Oliver, “we aim to promote literacy, to reach out and let kids know the importance of reading.”