Saturday 29 March 2008

IF: Homage to Pooh


A double homage, to the wonderful characters of A.A.Milne and inspiring illustrations of E.H. Shepard from Winnie-the-Pooh.
I wanted to interpret the characters and stories into my own style, but have found myself needing to study them a bit first, so for now I've included essentially a copy of one of Shepard's illustrations (above) and a couple of sketch studies (left). The wonderful thing about Shepard's simple, effective drawings is that you just can't capture the Pooh character making it even more special.
This weeks IF has inspired me to revisit these lovely stories and images, not least because they are loaded with lots of philosophical and zen thoughts too! (see 'Pooh and the Philosophers' by John Tyerman Williams and 'The Tao of Pooh & The Te of Piglet' by Benjamin Hoff).

21 comments:

Kev Levell said...

Nice piece Bee, Shepard's stuff is inspirational.

I've just noticed you've linked me - thank you, much appreciated, I'll return the favour.

Anonymous said...

Shepard is one of my favorite artists too! His illustrations for Pooh especially, the wonderful ink drawings, are so endering and skillful. I have often copied his stuff as practice too, it's a good way to learn from the masters. :-)

Cheryl said...

Makes me want to say, "ahhhhh." Very nice work.

NANCY LEFKO said...

very, very sweet...thay do deserve homage.

Miz K said...

Love Piglet!!

Anonymous said...

I like your drawing style!!! It's great!
The leaping cat few posts below is just wonderful!

Thanks for your nice comment on my blog :-)

Shano said...

It doesn't get any cuter! Very nice illo.

Esther Westwood said...

cute homage, sweet look to it

Tracy said...

What a beautiful illustration!

Teresa said...

oohhh soooo sweet!

Anonymous said...

I've always loved winnie, it's a great homage and very sweet! ;)

erin said...

sing ho! For the life of a bear! wonderful tribute.

Eric said...

I really like the "soft" quality your illustrations tend to have. They are very warm and wonderful.

Thank you for your nice comment on my blog.

Random York said...

That's a real sweet homage Bee! Very sensitive-

Loni Edwards said...

Oh this is lovely! This illo is so sweet!

Restnrileks said...

Great work bee. I love the subtleties in your works, yet, they invoke some sort of feelings just looking at them, making it hard to simply ignore them..

:)

janie said...

lovely homage, they really are special characters.

Kay Aker said...

Beautiful contours, simple and effective - really capture that Shepard vibe!

Digital Scott's Illustrationblog said...

Very stylized and cool!!!

Bobo said...

Simple and nice, very well express.

thedoodlegirl said...

Adorable! I love the softness of the lines and the way they curve around the characters.