Alright, I asked you yesterday which Edward inspired James Marshall. You had the choice of Edward Gorey, Edward Ardizzone, and Blake Edwards. The answer?
The gentleman on the right is none other than Edward Gorey. And, yes, Marshall considered him a master (alongside Maurice Sendak) of picture book illustration. You can see Gorey’s influence in Marshall’s earliest work. Here’s a page from PLINK, PLINK, PLINK (Baylor, Marshall, 1971).
You can see Marshall’s working hard to capture the atmosphere in Gorey’s work and in some places he’s successful (that tree, especially) but his crosshatching isn’t there. Lines in crosshatching are often oriented to follow the form of the object they’re decorating. Marshall accomplishes this in some places (the sloping bannister and the ball top) but in a rudimentary way. Crosshatching can also be used to denote the illustration’s light source but the shading is indistinct and, in some cases contradictory, (the ball at the top of the post is shaded on the left, the post itself is shaded on the right). Mostly, he’s using crosshatching to fill space.
Marshall would later find his strengths in shape, form, and composition to give his characters volume.
But he’d never give up using at least a slight bit of crosshatching. Or in the following example, a lot. Here’s three attempts at filling in Old Mother Hubbard’s skirt, none of which were used as the final art (please excuse the dim quality of the first two pictures, I took these in a low-light archival setting, the last photo is darker and triggered my camera’s flash… if the original should suddenly dissolve, you know who to blame).
The final? It’s wonderful. That drapery is a hard effect to achieve in any technique. James Marshall absolutely nails it here. It’s incredibly intentional (as is my jeans folds being kept in the image).
Oh, incidentally, today (the tenth) is James Marshall’s birthday. Maybe I’ll dip my pen in ink in honor of the occassion. As for the rest of the week… I’m playing it by ear, I’m not sure what else I’ll talk about. If you have any Marshall questions you’d like answered, let me know and I’ll do my best to answer them. See you tomorrow!
Those gloves, though.
I’m a big fan of illustrated rodents, and these do not disappoint! It’s fun to see the different iterations—love the tail curling around the arm.
Personally, I am blown away by the story of your reaction to Marshall’s documented cause of death and what you discovered after. I’d be interested in hearing more about your research process (visiting archival settings? Interviewing his agent?!) if that’s ever something you felt like writing about!
You know, some of that story has elements appropriate for spooky season. Maybe I’ll save it for Friday the 13th…
Thank you for visiting!
It’s so interesting to read your take on the crosshatching in these illustrations. As someone who is not a visual artist, I tend to focus on how illustrations make me feel or what they tell me, without ever thinking about the technical details of how the artist evoked that feeling or told that story. The next time I see an illustration with crosshatching, I’m going to be paying a lot more attention!