Christopher decided to shoot a video of me demonstrating the different stages of making the Nancy print. The first part (of four) is below. Though the screen I did in this video turned out to be underexposed and not usable, the videos hopefully have a lot of info for would-be screen printers. Enjoy!

Although this book isn’t the greatest example of ’60s illustration style, it is pretty funny for the “annotations” I made in it. Apparently I decided that Alvin the squirrel needed some dialogue:

I couldn’t spell right (gimme a break, I was only 4 or 5), and had some trouble drawing normal looking cartoon dialogue balloons:

In the book, Alvin ventures out into the forest and meets all sorts of woodland animals. Saying “hi” to each and every one of them, of course!

What do we have for today? Recently I went back to my parents’ home and came across a bunch of dog-eared old books that I loved as a kid. One of them, I vaguely recall, had a family of hippos and a lion. It was called The Secret Hiding Place, written and illustrated by Rainey Bennett and published in 1960. Here’s the cover:

This was an old library book, which holds its own potential for surprises. Like this sticker on the title page:

“Please wash your hands before you read me and keep me clean” — sound advice, then and now! As with most of my childhood books, I don’t remember the stories so much as the pictures. This particular book had a nice, loose drawing style with the animals rendered in black ink, surrounded by wispy watercolor clouds printed in red, blue and yellow. The book is now very yellowed and old, but the scan below captures some of the colors:

I remember one part in the book where the little hippo hides in the cave and is totally black. This kinda freaked me out as a youngster. Turn the page, quick!

I will be sharing more childhood books (and other stuff) in future installments of Flickr Fridays. Thanks for readin’!

Right away, what struck me about this book is its unusual format. The book actually contains its own blank sketchbook, bound on top and measuring about 9 inches tall by 6 inches wide, which is nestled in a sturdy hardback-style folder opposite the softcover instruction manual. The manual part is divided into chapters that explore Loosening Up, Composition, Line, Value, and Surface with an equal amount of written and visual info. Each subsection contains mini exercises such as drawing an object from memory, or sketching a piece of bunched-up fabric to get a feel for the line quality in rendering the object.

Practice Makes Perfect: Sketching and Drawing is published by Chronicle Books. Buy at Amazon.com here.

The silver prints cost $15 and the black ones are $12. Check them out!

This is such a sweet book. I wasn’t aware that Flora did commercial illustration into the ’70s. Some photos of this thrift store treasure have been posted in my flickr photostream.

Christopher tells me that he met Moffitt and her husband, photographer William Claxton, at an L.A. function in the ’90s. He didn’t know who she was at the time, however — he would have gotten an autograph if he did!

What most impressed me about this book is how craftily the illustrators worked with white space and printing techniques to make a visually stunning statement. The artwork is presented in chronological order, reproduced in graphic layouts that punch up the often stunning color palettes the artists used. The earlier examples are more conservative subject-wise, with prim ladies emoting in billowy dresses, but the art is surprisingly daring in technique. As the ’60s move along, we see wilder colors and looser, more artfully sketch-like renderings, until 1966-67 brings on a mod, Carnaby Street influence with a graphic punch. Cartoons, collage, surrealism, revival and psychedelic styles all get their due, but by 1969 we’re back in the realm of glamorously swooning ladies rendered in washy paints. Some things never change, it seems.

This book focuses solely on British publications, which honestly let me down a little, but many American artists of the era are represented here with quality work by the likes of Coby Whitmore, Andy Virgil and Lynn Buckham. One of my favorites from that period, Bob Peak, is represented only once — a striking image of a kissing couple dominated by the black space between their profiles. Wow!

Lifestyle Illustration of the ’60s is available at Amazon.com, of course. I got my copy at discount seller Edward R. Hamilton for much cheaper, however. Fiell is set to release a companion volume, Lifestyle Illustrations of the ’50s, later on this month.

YouTube user ZappVid9 has a lot of Liquid Television segments on his channel, stuff that I totally forgot about. If the names Dog-Boy or Winter Steele ring any bells for ya, head over there and watch.

Although many pieces in The 3D Type Book are the handiwork of designers working in the commercial arena, several examples push the boundaries into fine art suitable for a museum display. One of my favorite examples is the CMYK Alphabet from London-based Evelin Kasikov. Kasilov’s ethereal letterforms, rotated on top of themselves and beautifully rendered in embroidery, nicely bridge the gab between computer technology and the D.I.Y. aesthetic espoused by Etsy and other crafty communities. Cool as it is, it’s just one sample of many that inspire an “oh, wow” reaction. On the whole, the book is very Euro-centric (a minor complaint) but also a great record of creativity being found in the oddest, most unusual places.

Addendum: Vollauschek has alerted me to 3d-type.com, the book’s official site, where the complete contents can be previewed.

The 3D Type Book is published by Laurence King. Buy at Amazon.com here.

General Foods’ Home Meal Planner from 1961 was a booklet that Christopher found on the Free pile at his workplace. It outlines how to plan your meals smartly and efficiently — involving lots of General Foods products, of course. Amongst the tips and recipes are some wonderful typography and illustrations depicting a perfect housewife preparing meals for her nuclear family. For dealing with something as mundane as meal planning, the whole thing is incredibly elegant and Betty Draperish. Several images from the booklet were scanned and posted in my Cool Vintage Illustration flickr set.

Speaking of Betty Draper, we’re finally getting into Mad Men. Seemingly everyone I know was raving about the show when it first premiered, and I subsequently checked out an episode. It was … just okay. Beautifully crafted with a committed cast, but also cold, excessively dour and (worst of all) having a smug, revisionist attitude about the ’60s. I decided to give it another try when Amazon had a sale on the DVDs last year. Although the first few episodes still have that annoyingly smug tone, both of us were soon wrapped up in the drama and storylines. There were still a few so-so episodes from that year, but now we’re halfway through the second season DVDs and there’s a noticeable improvement in the acting and plot development. Can’t wait to check out the following two seasons — what an enthralling drama.

Anyhow, let’s indulge in something that Betty Draper would obviously find quite handy (whenever she isn’t fretting about her heel of a hubby):

My official quest began a year ago at our local VNSA used book saleorama. Surely they would have a few Junior Deluxe Editions. I didn’t find any, however, until this year’s sale on February 12th. For fifty cents to a dollar apiece, I managed to snag nice copies of National Velvet, Sherlock Holmes, Tales from Shakespeare, Swiss Family Robinson and Robinson Crusoe. Even the volunteer lady who helped me check out was impressed. Coincidentally I also got a rather beat-up library copy of Bible Stories for Young Readers this week at a Wickenberg, Arizona thrift for two quarters. Score!

I set up a little Flickr set for my collection, adding to it as it grows. I suppose they’ve been an inspiration for LitKids as well (and, who knows, might serve as the background for future prints). Enjoy!

Unlike some of the earlier prints, this one was a breeze to do. The background is some Victorian era clip art of a flower, screen printed in bright yellow. I then used some sage green spray paint on the mole shape, making a nice speckled texture. A spray of gold paint and the dark green mole image was complete. Here it is, listed on Etsy.

As a bonus, here’s a photo Christopher shot of me sitting at the table we had set up last weekend at (excellent) local bookseller Changing Hands. We were there for five six hours peddling prints, and at the end of the day we wound up selling ten prints — including more copies of the Mole print than anything else!

I love having new art in the home. Christopher also gave some swell stuff by famous ’60s/’70s print artist David Weidman. Weidman sold his work pre-framed, in both original screen prints and high quality reproductions (sort of an Etsy seller before his time, actually). This cat print is one of the repros, but it looks great above my dresser:

And here’s an original Weidman framed screen print of three quail executed in very ’60s shades of harvest gold, burnt orange and brown. Looks wonderful on the blue bedroom wall:

In addition to the two pieces of fab art, Christopher gifted me with a couple of books off my Amazon wish list — Dan Nadel’s Art In Time: Comic Book Adventures 1940-1980 and Chris Nichols’ The Leisure Architecture of Wayne McAllister.

C. also needed some books to read. I gave him a couple of things NOT on his wish list (but perfect for him), Anthony Slide’s Inside The Hollywood Fan Magazine and the Images of America photo collection Early Warner Bros. Studios. Good background info for our next Burbank trip.

Finally I also gave the spouse some DVD sets picked up at Big Lots and Target — Star Trek Fan Collective: Klingon, Perry Mason Season 3, Vol. 1 and a Fox film collection containing Fantastic Voyage, The Lost World, The Towering Inferno and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Hours of viewing fun from those hauls!