Scott Gustafson is another artist whose works really caught my eye as I was researching for inspiration for my coursework.
Scott Gustafson’s earliest artistic ambition was to become an animator. But by the time he entered high school, he became acquainted with artists from the “Golden Age of Illustration,” and great illustrators like N.C. Wyeth, Normal Rockwell, Maxfield Parrish and Arthur Rackham opened a door onto a world of beautiful images that continue to inspire him to this day.Lingering dreams of making animated films, however, led Scott to major in animation at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. It wasn’t until after leaving art school that the possibility of a career as a freelance illustrator began to truly appeal to him.
His illustrated books include The Night Before Christmas, Peter Pan, Nutcracker, as well as two original titles, Animal Orchestra and Alphabet Soup. His book of Classic Fairy Tales, released in the fall of 2003 by The Greenwich Workshop Press, was awarded a Chesley award for best interior book illustrations from the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists.
His works are painfully detailed. The tilt of a head … the gleam of an eye … the subtlety of expression … Scott Gustafson breathes new life in all the famous fairy tale folk he creates or interprets with a vibrant sense of character and movement. He combines real emotions, real expressions, and real movement in fun, fantasy characters. I He plays around with texture, dark and soft edges, and his striking use of light adds drama and depth. His layouts are also rather effective, although complicated, they are not cluttered, thus backing up the gorgeous designs to produce striking, cohesive images with the ability to unite the different elements of the story.
I believe that I have a lot to learn from his paintings, be it watercolour technique, composition, expression of characters. I constantly referred back to his paintings while doing the finals for my coursework. I really like how his brushstrokes are really light, which I felt is rather appropriate, in fact, ideal, when illustrating for fairy-tales. One must be able to bring out the lightheartedness and whimsical quality of fairy-tales. I also tried to pay as much attention to details in my finals, and focused mostly on the expression of the characters and judging from his work, the expression of the character is crucial in bring ‘life’ to the painting/illustration.
