Bill Peet, author/illustrator extraordinaire!

I thought perhaps it was time to do a post about some favorite children's books that, while not specifically "art books", could certainly inspire art lessons.  Then I discovered that I'd already written that post, about two years ago!  You can find it HERE.

So, instead of just re-writing the same post again, I want to focus on one particular author/illustrator mentioned in that prior post, the fabulous Bill Peet.  If you've never come across any of the books by Peet, you are actually still likely to be familiar with much of his work, because, besides being an author/illustrator of children's books, he also spent 27 years working at Disney as a story writer/illustrator.  He left Disney after a disagreement with Walt Disney, and then continued his career writing and illustrating children's books.

In the shelves of books saved from my son's childhood, I found that he had four books by Peet.  Three of these books are a selection are storybooks, and the fourth (on the left in the photo above) is an autobiography written for an intended audience of upper elementary age children.  The black & white images below are from this autobiography.  His books are filled with rich  drawings of animals, both real and imaginary, trains, cars, buildings, and much more. 

 In the autobiography, he talks about his time working at Disney, as you can see in the two pictures below.   This book is an excellent choice for teaching children about autobiographies. 

One of Peet's most compelling books is The Wump World, a book with a strong environmental warning.  It may remind you in spirit of Dr. Seuss's The Lorax, but Peet's book was published first, about a year before The Lorax.  Here's a few images from The Wump World.

Here's a few more pages from the Peet books that we own, including Cowardly Clyde, and Cock-a-Doodle Dudley.  I think, if you were looking for lesson inspiration, Peet's books could be motivation for using illustrations to tell a story, and inventing creatures, and are wonderful examples of using value to create forms. 

These few that we own are only a small sampling of the books written and illustrated by Bill Peet.  Each one has an intelligent story, well-written, and loads of beautiful illustrations.

One of my favorite Peet books can be somewhat controversial, and years ago I made the mistake of selecting it to read to a 2nd grade class in my school district, when I was invited as a 'guest reader'.  That book is The Gnats of Knotty Pine.  The story takes place at the start of hunting season.  The animals in the forest band together to chase away the hunters.  Unfortunately, the school district where I taught is located in the rural foothills of the Adirondacks of NY, an area very popular for hunting.  I would guess that easily 3/4 of my students lived in homes where there are hunting rifles, and where many of these students have been hunting with a parent, and possibly even own their own guns.  Venison is a frequent meal at the dinner table.  The kids did not understand the anti-hunting stance of this book!

If you've never encountered a book by Bill Peet, I strongly recommend it!  

Pacon Plastic Poster Board - part 2

 A couple of days ago I told you about a new product from Pacon that I had the opportunity to test.  I loved the assorted vibrant colors I used for my collage experiments, but the color choice that intrigued me most was the "clear" (which I think can be more accurately described as translucent), so I experimented with a couple more possible project ideas for the Pacon website.

When I was a kid, my parents purchased a pair of paintings on glass at a fair, that the artist had painting while they watached, and they hung on our living room wall for decades.  I wish I knew what happened to them.  The artist had painted the landscapes on the back of the glass, beginning with the foreground details.  These paintings were the inspiration for my ideas for the translucent plastic poster board.

I decided to use the translucency to create some atmospheric perspective.  One side is very smooth; I will be referring to this side as the front, and the other is slightly textured; this side is the back.  I sketched a quick skyline on paper, put it under the translucent board with the back side facing UP, and began by painting yellows and whites for windows and lights.

 I painted with acrylic, which dried quickly. As soon as it dried, I painted some buildings in black and various grays.  I painted these right OVER the windows, so you could no longer see them on the back.

 On top of the buildings, still on the BACK, I quickly painted the sky, with clouds and some smoke coming from smokesacks on the buildings.  Here's what the back looked like at this point. 

While that was drying, I also painting this sunburst sky on another piece of the poster board.  I cannot seem to get the color balance accurate in any of these color photos, but you'll get the idea.

When I set that aside to draw, I went back to my skyline painting.  I flipped it over, and this is how it looked on the front.  Since the windows were painted FIRST, their detail was all visible. 

Then, I used some more acrylic paint, this time on the FRONT, to paint some foreground in front of the buildings.  I hadn't planned well, so I didn't leave a lot of room for the foreground, but I was able to fit in some foliage.  Here it is.

 As a final step, I used a black Sharpie marker on the FRONT and added a few line details on the buildings here and there.  This is the final product. 

I think the "backwards thinking" required to plan this out would be a fun challenge for upper elementary or mid-level students.  You will be painting FIRST what you usually paint LAST!

Meanwhile... the color burst sky on the back of the other piece of translucent plastic poster board had dried, so I flipped it over and, using a black Sharpie on the front, I created this silhouette of a bare tree.

 Viewed from the backside, this is what it looks like.

 I decided to do one last fun detail.  I flipped back to the front, and, using a white Sharpie paint marker, I added a skim of snow on the top side of the branches and the ground.  I also added a few flakes flying through the sky.  Here's the final product.

I'm still toying with other ideas for the clear board, so maybe, down the road, there will be a "part 3" post about the Pacon Plastic Poster Board.  I'm busy playing with colored Sharpies on the board, using them on both the front and back to experiment with the color mixing possibilities when light passes through when hung in a window.

By the way, for those of you intrigued by this product and want to get some, it is currently only available at Michael's, in both the clear and white, but School Specialty will be picking it up soon, and they will offer all colors I shared in my previous post.  So keep your eyes peeled!  This is a really fun product, with lots of possibility!