Modern Illustrations for Good Old Tales: A New Look at the Stories of Andersen, Carroll, and Others

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Today, illustrated books are experiencing a new round of popularity. We learn more and more names of great book illustrators working around the globe, and each new name is a new magnificent world full of fairy-tale creatures, beautiful princesses, mysterious gardens and enchanted castles. Christian Birmingham is a British artist of the "classical" direction in book illustration, whose works rediscover the wonderful stories of Andersen and Lewis, Perrault and Carroll …

The Russian reader - here I really want to say “viewer”, his works are so visual and cinematic - Birmingham is familiar as an illustrator of The Little Mermaid, who, after many experimental artists, offered a traditional, almost retrograde interpretation of everyone's favorite fairy tale. In his native UK, Birmingham became famous after the release of Dickens's "A Christmas Carol" with his illustrations. He grew up in Cornwall, in a creative family. His parents kept an art gallery, and already at a young age, Christian began to paint landscapes, which he sold there. In addition, his mother studied at the Royal College of Art as a fashion designer and painted in any free moment - she probably taught her son special attention to detail. So, Birmingham grew up with a clear conviction: "Drawing is normal!", And could not imagine any other life for itself.

He successfully graduated from Exeter College of Art in 1991 and was planning to find work in the field of graphic design. In search of his vocation, Birmingham moved to London, deciding to become a professional illustrator. And it was then that the main trouble of all artists awaited him - the painful search for their own style. He tried himself in graphics and painting, in watercolors and in pastels … Not yet having a decent income, he used the cheapest materials. Especially it did not go well with pastels - Birmingham saw a lot of pastel works and realized that this is exactly what he would like to embody on paper. He dreamed of creating a fairy tale - but the way the artists of prehistoric times did it, quickly, accurately, directly in contact with the pigment …

However, the technique was not given to him in any way. Fortunately, his agent quickly figured out what was wrong - poor quality pastels. He sent the young man to an expensive art store on Great Russell Street called Cornelissen & Son - with a long history and impeccable reputation. Cornelissen & Son doors have become a portal for Birmingham to another universe, to the world of real artists.

Large publishers drew attention to him, and the first significant work was "Christmas Eve" by Dickens. The success was overwhelming - and overwhelming, since the artist had no idea that over the next years the publishers would sell one and a half million copies of this book with his "pictures"! Or rather, paintings, since the work of Birmingham is closer to painting than to book graphics. Birmingham later came across Dickens' work more than once, but already in the status of a recognized and wealthy artist, when he was able to afford to hire a model from the Ugly Models agency and carry out sketches from nature in an old house of the early 18th century with a fully preserved authentic interior. All the characters in the illustrations of Birmingham are real people. And much more often they are not specially invited models, but relatives of the artist himself. Nephew and niece turn into Kai and Gerda, father's friend - into Santa Claus …

After the phenomenal success of the first work, orders fell on Birmingham like a cornucopia. The prestigious awards in the field of illustration also poured in, about which he, a simple and modest man, is reluctant to speak.

From the very first major works of Birmingham on the background of others he distinguished his special "picturesque" style. Not many illustrators work this way - this approach to work is considered somewhat old-fashioned, but it does not lose in the least to bold graphic (including digital) experiments. Birmingham has always been inspired by the Impressionists, Art Nouveau book illustrators, Pre-Raphaelites and Symbolist painters. The level of realism that fascinates both publishers and readers is achieved through careful preparation and thorough study of the material.

But here the artist strives to maintain a balance. On the one hand, he is attentive to the individual characteristics of models, light and shadow effects, details of clothing and interiors, but on the other hand, he attaches great importance to the imagination. It is the artist's imagination that unites disparate elements into a coherent story. The main idea of Christian Birmingham's work is that an illustration should be not just an "image", not just a visualization of the text. The illustration is intended to expand the reader's understanding of the situation described in the text, about the characters, about the interior or landscape where the action takes place.

“From a philosophical point of view, of course, all visual art is dedicated to light,” writes Birmingham on its Internet page. And the light in his illustrations is the main character. The candles flicker at the ball, the shadows on the walls play nervously, the dawn sun paints the waves where the Little Mermaid splashes with crimson, and the wrong winter sun penetrates through the snow whirlwind, highlighting the majestic figure and slender face of the Snow Queen …

Several years ago, Birmingham moved to Brighton, closer to the sea - the play of the sun on the waves fascinated him from childhood. In parallel with his work on illustrations, he pursues a career as a landscape painter - and is still attentive to the subtle shades of color and lighting effects. In addition, he created designs for the royal stamps issued to commemorate the centenary of the Rugby League and the centenary of the writer Enid Blyton. But still, children and parents around the world - including in Russia - love him precisely because of these gentle Mermaids and Gerd, snow-white sails of ships, crazy tea parties and many, many other beautiful images.