WRITES DRAWS JOKES BLOGGS
This book doesn’t exist. During lock down I thought I’d illustrate the covers to books I’d like to read. In this book, grasshopper warriors terrorize the planet Tenar while the catch phrase “Summer is coming” is bantered about quite a bit. But seriously… creating new illustration “looks?” or “Styles” while we sit inside avoiding Covid while mumbling about the fact that “Fall is coming!” Next up? I’m not sure…but Dung Beetle is on the list for sure!
Ted Lewin is a former teacher, current neighbor and an amazing
children’s book author and illustrator.
He and his wife Betsy, have a joint project coming out soon that…I can’t
say anything about just yet. In addition to that, Ted will soon be featured
in a magazine I, well…I can’t talk about that either.
I CAN tell you about Ted’s computer. It makes him call me up and
use words I can’t type here. When he called with computer issues
recently, I assured him that I could easily help him and headed to his house.
Thus ensued a sprawling saga involving lost passwords, calls to AppleCare
and another call to my wife for additional assistance.
The upside to all this? After swearing at the computer for a few hours,
Ted let me help the talented photographer, Bill Kontzias photograph a
sampling of his art throughout the years for that aforementioned magazine
article I can’t talk about. By sampling, I mean hundreds of paintings and
drawings. The below panoramic image is his studio with Bill taking photos
of his art. Those paintings on the wall are just a small sample
of his early work.
Below is Ted in front of some of those early oil paintings and possibly telling
us how much he hates his computer.
As Bill photographed a mountain of illustrations, I looked through
some 40 years worth of incredible art. With Ted’s permission I took pictures
of some of my favorites. I didn’t ask about the details of every image, but I
believe the below is possibly an illustration from a 1970’s era Readers Digest.
Some of these were done on hot press board which threw me for a loop.
Water color is hard enough on cold press, but somehow
Ted makes it look beautiful none the less.
The bear below is an older piece likely from a 1950-60’s pulp or men’s magazine.
He did this with casein paint back before he switched over to exclusively
using watercolors.
I took a shot of this just because I love trains. Again not sure what book
this illustration was used for.
Today, Ted and Betsy both create and illustrate amazing (award winning)
children’s books, and if you want to know more about the above images
you’ll have to check out that article I can’t talk about. Thanks to Ted for letting
me look through, and take pictures, of his many illustrations!
Check out work by both of them at their web sites:
Fast Company Magazine! Their “top 50 most innovative companies” issue
just came out and I did an illustration for one of those “top” companies.
I can’t show you the whole thing as they of course want you to buy the
magazine so…you get this peek. I have to add, this magazine is a good read.
And I’m not just saying that.
