Sunday, May 12, 2013

Beautiful Black and White

Since I won’t be posting any of my charcoal illustrations here anytime soon, here are some beautiful black and white illustrations from vintage books that belonged (probably) to my grandparents. Enjoy.

These illustrations immediately below are from a book called Droll Stories by Honore de Balzac.The illustrations are by Steele Savage. The book cost Rs.2 when it was bought.





This old edition of Aesops Fables was illustrated by Tenniel who is known for his beautiful illustrations for Alice in Wonderland.






The illustrations below belong to a Kannada Bible. I have no idea who the illustrator of these gorgeous illustrations are.




Lest there be the inevitable comment that contemporary illustrations do not match the quality shown here, I assure you there are plenty of illustrators who draw very well. One has to sift through the noise and hype to find them hidden away drawing like maniacs inside their studios. They won't have websites or Facebook pages. Their presence on the net is minimal. With time if they are lucky, they get placed in the 'Forgotten illustrator section' of 50Watts.  Here is one of them >>




6 comments:

Gwen Buchanan said...

Thank you for sharing these illustrations, Priya. Beautiful lines and detail... and attitudes.
they show up so well in the black and white where form and composition is so important.

Have decided not to put your beatiful illustrations on google because of a copyright issue?

pRiyA said...

My pleasure Gwen.
I am working at a project right now which will take a while to complete. Therefore the break in personal illustrations for blog posts for a while :-)

Julie said...

I love these old books with beautiful illustrations and annotations. They have a history of their own.
Thank you for the link to Pavel Tatarnikov, it was a pleasure to discover his universe.

Nancy // and while we are here said...

These illustrations are so wonderful, I love these b/w drawings in old books. And I think illustrations always add to the magic of a book.

Thank you for sharing!

Priya Sebastian said...

You are welcome Julie. I love Pavel Tatarnikov's compositions.

Absolutely Nancy. I wish there were more illustrated books for adults!
:-)

Unknown said...

We will miss your black and white charcoal illustrations, but good luck with your project!