So I was talking about the inability of award-winning, yet still terrible illustrator Sophie Blackall to handle perspective in her illustrations for a children's book about a lighthouse. To my amazement I found a blog which has an interview with Blackall in which Blackall claims to have done a whole lot of research for the book. I guess that shows that all the research in the world cannot cure an inability to draw.
I've been criticizing Blackall's work long before she won the Caldecott medal in 2016. In 2012 I saw her banner image on the NY subway system and understood her true awfulness even then.
But it looks like I got my wish from this 2016 blog post when I speculated that winning a Caldecott would make Blackall focus on children's illustration. To the relief of all discerning adults.
I've been criticizing Blackall's work long before she won the Caldecott medal in 2016. In 2012 I saw her banner image on the NY subway system and understood her true awfulness even then.
But it looks like I got my wish from this 2016 blog post when I speculated that winning a Caldecott would make Blackall focus on children's illustration. To the relief of all discerning adults.
Here are some examples of both more realistic and more stylized approaches to lighthouses for kids.
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| A convincing rendition of top-down perspective on a lighthouse by artist David Armitage showing it can be done. |
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| This piece by Rosalind Clark might be the most similar in style to Blackall's that I've seen but yet is so much less awkward. I shudder to think how Blackall would handle the pose of the girl on a hillside in this image. |
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| A more realistic work by Elaine Wentworth - Blackall couldn't do something this realistic in her wildest dreams |
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| Very stylized but vastly superior technique to Blackall by Ingrid Godon. Appropriately for a children's picture book, Godon gets top billing over "with words by Andre Sollie" What an hysterical title for a kid's book though - love it. |
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| A non-fiction book about lighthouses by Roman Belyaev who truly understands perspective - stylized, precise and beautiful |
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| Ocean by Emily Dove - so beautiful and graceful. In a just world it would be Dove winning a Caldecott medal, not a talentless hack like Blackall. And I bet Blackall couldn't understand why this is so much better than her work but then that's what it means to be an exemplar of the Dunning-Kruger effect - you don't know that you're bad because you don't know what makes something good. More stellar work by Dove on her web site. |
As promised here is the one lighthouse-related piece of children's book illustration that I think is worse than the work of Sophie Blackall.
Like Blackall, Elias is much better at drawing lighthouses than people.
Like Blackall, Elias is much better at drawing lighthouses than people.
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One of the far-superior illustrators
who were runners-up to
the awful Sophie Blackall ~
I can't help but notice that
the chair of the 2016 Caldecott
medal selection committee,
Rachel G. Payne, lives in
Brooklyn, just like Blackall.
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The problem with someone like Blackall, who can't draw well, winning the most prestigious medal in children's illustration is not simply an incompetent being told she's the best - it's all the truly talented illustrators being told that an incompetent is better than them. That's what really annoys me.
And also that subway card by Blackall in 2012 is truly, truly hideous. I hated being forced to look at it during my commute.
But I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise - if the truly awful Renoir is still considered a great master, anybody could be.