Friday, June 22, 2007

Everett McNear in Childcraft

Another illustrator who really caught my attention in these Childcraft volumes is Everett McNear. He didn't contribute a huge amount of material to the books, but each of his pieces has a strong and unique approach that really appeals to me.


And by searching his name on the internet I discovered this article that will be of special interest to those of you who are designers (or who are simply interested in graphic design). It turns out that Everett McNear owned one of Chicago's leading studios in the 1950's.


As well, this page of a California art gallery's website provides McNear's birth and death dates and shows an example of his fine art painting.


We have barely scratched the surface when it comes to the Childcraft series of books. I've held back an awful lot of material this week that I'll be using for longer posts on specific artists.

* You can see today's images at full size in my Everett McNear Flickr set.

4 comments:

  1. Leif, are we done with the "Realism in Childcraft" thing already? I was diggin' that section. Thanks very much for scanning and sharing.

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  2. Les; I feel your pain. But yes, you're only going to get a taste for now. Sorry buddy.

    I plan to scan a lot more by the realistic illustrators in the Childcraft books - but I'm saving that stuff for future topics. :-)

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  3. I have a set of Childcraft that is about 40 years old (My mom sold Worldbook for awhile and I've had the set since I can remember) I was weaned on this illos! I love them. Especially those Charles Harper ones. There are a few paper sculptures that always intrigued me, too.
    They were also my introduction to Maurice Sendak!

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  4. Thanks for your comment, Tim! Yes, its amazing how many fantastic illustrators worked on Childcraft... Sendak, the Provensens, Battaglia... the list just goes on and on. The editors must have put out requests to absolutely everyone in the business.

    You're right about the paper sculptures - really neat stuff! Many were done by an artist who worked for the Chicago art studio Stephens, Biondi, DiCicco.

    I have mixed emotions about whether my blog is the right place to feature paper sculpture, though...

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