Friday, June 25, 2010

Famous Illustrators - Lyle Justis

Today I'll talk briefly about Lyle Justis.
I took these two images from this blog (it's in Spanish but has many more beautiful drawings of his).
I could not find a Wikipedia page to refer to as a link for the post title... so if you click on it you'll find yourself on another blog that talks about another illustrator: Barbara Bradley.
The ones who know me... know this name already.
She was my teacher and mentor and was one of the most influential persons in my life (together with my grandmother and a few other inspirational people I actually never met: Walt Disney and Osamu Tezuka amongst them).

If you go to the link you'll hear from Barbara herself how important Lyle Justis was for her. I honestly didn't know him until she started showing his drawings in class. She made copies of a book she owned, Treasure Island, and compiled them in 4 pages.
Now that I am preparing for class I found these 4 pages and, at the same time, thought about him and her.

His drawings are very simple but very dynamic. He keeps them pretty sketchy but still loves to draw detailed costumes and crowded scenes packed with action. Unfortunately it's very hard to find the Treasure Island book illustrated by him (there's an awesome spread with a huge battle scene too, simply fantastic).
So I'll be for ever grateful to Barbara for making copies of her book and giving me the chance to know this great pirate illustrator. (and of course for many other things... and she'll be for ever missed ;_;)
Btw this is one of Barbara's drawings:

























Wasn't she amazing? I know... I love her so much!
If I keep on working hard maybe, one day, I'll resemble her a little.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Barbara's drawing is wonderful *__*. I wish my art teacher had 1/10 of her talent in drawing and teaching the human figure (the guy was an abstract dripping artist... therefore tried to turn his pupils into Pollock clones mostly =_=. I resisted with all my might XD --> this might explain a few things about the way my drawings evolved - or rather, the way they got even more stubbornly Michelangeloesque - , btw... )
In any case, you've learned well and I believe she's proud of you from whenever her spirit dwells now ;) .