I met his illustrations through my editor in the children's division of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Robbie Mayes. Renato Alarcão recently did a cover for the upcoming (Nov. 2nd) paperback edition of The Curse of the Raven Mocker (Penguin's Firebird imprint, edited by Sharyn November) and earlier made illustrations for the jacket and frontispiece of the FSG hardcover (and forthcoming Firebird softcover, pub. date Nov. 2nd) If you search this blog on his name, you can find many sketches and illustrations. (Others don't appear--why?--but are close to the posts that do. Other unused sketches can be found on my website; see the links at right.)
Renato is wonderfully prolific and adept. For each book, he gave us more than a dozen sketches, all entrancing. He has a real grasp of enchantment, and will no doubt illustrate many more books. I expect that he will write a few of his own, some day, because he has "dream power" in many of his pictures.His brand new website is wonderfully designed and full of beautiful work, as well as glimpses into many of facets of the artist's life, including his role as a teacher of young artists. It is, of course, the portfolio that most allures--be sure that you look at the children's books. Renato Alarcão has a grand fluency in many "languages" of illustration, and is a master of styles.
These are lovely illustrations, well worth your visit. The site has only been up for a week but has already been featured in "Drawn", a website listed by a recent issue of Time Magazine as one of the year's 50 best: http://drawn.ca/2006/09/21/renato-alarcao/
www.renatoalarcao.com.br
Illustrations here:
-Lanterna dos Alfogados (immediately below), the very first Renato Alarcão picture I ever saw, and one that still comes to mind when I think of him.
-Illustration (above) for Ana Maria Machado's História meio ao contrario (1978), a tale that starts with "and they lived happily ever after" and ends with "once upon a time."
Click on the pictures to see larger versions of these.
Breathtaking and wonderful artwork!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous - I love stuff like this.
ReplyDeleteThis is very good.
ReplyDeleteI have not been around lately, as I have been swamped painting with 600 children. Not all at once, just in bunches of 20-25 for a total of about 100 a day. No time between classes either. I have some terrific budding artists in my classes.
Hope you and yours are doing well.
Yes, his word is lovely. "Wondrous," as Jeffery (the poet in the prior post) said.
ReplyDeleteAll's well, or well enough.