Thursday, January 08, 2009

The Arrival by Shaun Tan via Cabinet of Wonders

Listening to: Into the Nightlife by Cyndi Lauper, from Bring Ya to the Brink

I have been meaning to write about one of my favourite Australian book illustrators*, Shaun Tan for some time now and have been pipped to the post! Heather McDougal has eloquently blogged on Cabinet of Wonders about The Arrival. Via the comments page you can find this rather wonderful little documentary/interview with Shaun about the upcoming animation of The Lost Thing and the artistic process. The Arrival is my favourite Shaun Tan graphic novel, followed by The Lost Thing so I'm finding the prospect of that being animated, rather exciting!

What I adore about Shaun's unique work is the quirkiness, aged rather than shiney and new textures, details, fantastic creature design, contraptions and landscapes. It's a little bit steampunk without referencing any period in particular and in that sense, timeless.

Photobucket

Print sized illustrations from The Arrival here.

Website of the Day
Shaun Tan


*The other is Melbourne based, Graeme Base whose work I have had the pleasure of growing up with and seeing in the flesh at an exhibition recently. I got some books signed for Christmas including the delightful 'The Art of Graeme Base' :)

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