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December 11, 2007
Ed Emberley & Me
I imagine I'm not the only child of the 1970s who has vivid memories of Ed Emberley's many "instructional" drawing books. I was recently sorting through some of my papers and found a little booklet of my own copies of Emberley's drawings, which I had stapled together to give "to Grandpa"... okay, admittedly I have mixed feelings about not only this sort of nostalgia, but also the assumption that kids' artwork is interesting or of value to adults. Regardless, here are scans from Emberley's Drawing Book of Animals as well as my 6-year-old interpretations of them.
I'm not sure what's going on with these two lion heads -- the first one is clearly the work of my childhood self, but the second? I dunno. The certainty of form and linework seems a bit too much to be from the hands of a child. I'm wondering if the second head was drawn by my mom or dad... or maybe I just had a really good day.
Here's another puzzler -- what is a spider (dangling on its silk, no less) doing under water with a fish? Possibly I was confusing spider and octopus? Even then my mind was already starting to go.
I also recently realized that Emberley illustrated many of the covers, chapter pages and stories in several of my old gradeschool textbooks. Here are a few examples of such, though it's interesting how psychedlic and weird the work is compared to his drawing books. I have no idea what school books look like now, but I can't imagine they're this strange.
Ed Emberley is a genius. This a great post.
The school book illustrations are amazing too.
Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: Big 'Un at December 11, 2007 07:00 AM
What a wonderful post, Jeff! I'm a huge Ed E fan - and so is my son, who learned a lot from Ed's books, just as you did.
I actually posted some of Simon's drawings on my other blog ( leifdrawing101 ) and I love seeing how your experience and his are so similar. The last batch of Ed E textbook illos you unearthed are pure gold! Thanks for sharing, Jeff!
Posted by: leif at December 11, 2007 09:35 AM
I think you know which one *I* like best!
Even as a kid, you were amazingly self-motivated to practice your craft. Sometimes you make me ill. :)
I had Signposts books too and remember those illos fondly.
Posted by: BRC at December 11, 2007 04:01 PM
Wow, your Ed Emberleys turned out MUCH better than mine ever did. ;)
I'd borrow and re-borrow his animal book and the Big Green Drawing Book from the library SO many times and my parents NEVER twigged to just buy me my own :(
Posted by: Amy Mebberson at December 13, 2007 07:54 PM
Oh, thanks for putting these up. I was a kid artist in the 70's too and had a few of Ed's books. I loved the one with all of the city scenes and you could draw cars and boats to go with the skylines. I seem to remember a green book of monsters or something as well.
I ended up as a designer, so those books were a part of my art education I suppose.
Posted by: Xyling at December 13, 2007 08:03 PM
This just goes to prove once again how amazing Ed Emberley was, is and will always be... and how much I've yet to learn.
Thanks mighty for sharing Sergeant Oop and Apprentice Noodle with all of us!
Posted by: S.britt at December 13, 2007 09:32 PM
This is great stuff! Thanks for introducing me to this artist. I need to get this book and work on my animals.
Posted by: PaMdora at December 14, 2007 06:30 AM
Eh! interesting your work!!!
I like so much the sinthetic child drawings!!!!
;)
Posted by: haus at December 14, 2007 06:42 AM
I like Ed's work so much. I really enjoyed his books when I was younger. I have quite a few pages devoted to thumb prints in my art book. I have this one really nice memory of my mom stamping the thumb prints, because my hands were too small! Thanks...
Posted by: viola at December 14, 2007 07:09 AM
Ed actually lives in my town (Ipswich, MA). I keep trying to get in touch but to no avail. I'd love to hook up for coffee and chew the fat.
Posted by: Andy Smith at December 14, 2007 11:33 AM
I absolutely love this post. Thank you so much for taking the time to put your pictures next to Ed E.'s pages. It is delightful to see your work. I am a big Ed E. fan and now a big fan of your also. Wonderful post!
Posted by: Jacque Davis at December 17, 2007 11:16 AM
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I imagine I'm not the only child of the 1970s who has vivid memories of Ed Emberley's many "instructional" drawing books. I was recently sorting through some of my papers and found a little booklet of my own copies of Emberley's drawings, which I had stapled together to give "to Grandpa"... okay, admittedly I have mixed feelings about not only this sort of nostalgia, but also the assumption that kids' artwork is interesting or of value to adults. Regardless, here are scans from Emberley's Drawing Book of Animals as well as my 6-year-old interpretations of them.
I'm not sure what's going on with these two lion heads -- the first one is clearly the work of my childhood self, but the second? I dunno. The certainty of form and linework seems a bit too much to be from the hands of a child. I'm wondering if the second head was drawn by my mom or dad... or maybe I just had a really good day.
Here's another puzzler -- what is a spider (dangling on its silk, no less) doing under water with a fish? Possibly I was confusing spider and octopus? Even then my mind was already starting to go.
I also recently realized that Emberley illustrated many of the covers, chapter pages and stories in several of my old gradeschool textbooks. Here are a few examples of such, though it's interesting how psychedlic and weird the work is compared to his drawing books. I have no idea what school books look like now, but I can't imagine they're this strange.
