The Lincoln Family

I was priviledged to be asked to supply illustrations for Rosemary Wells' emmensely moving story about Abraham Lincoln and his relationship with his family, “Lincoln and his Boys”. 

I did a great deal of research and background reading about Lincoln, and I travelled to Springfield, Illinois with Rosemary to visit the Lincoln home there, and to get as much authentic visual reference material as I possibly could.

I came to see Lincoln as a hugely likeable and admirable figure. In Rosemary’s story he is laid back and relaxed with his sons, Willie and Tad, a funny, indulgent father more than the granite prophet we know from the Lincoln Memorial.

Abraham and Mary Lincoln were shattered when Willie died in the White House from typhoid fever in 1862, and it is no surprise that when Tad also died young, a few years after Lincoln’s assasination, Mary Todd Lincoln was utterly unhinged by grief and depression.

"No One But You"

It's great having a Dublin city centre studio, and it's particularly buzzy during the week of official visits to Ireland by both Queen Elizabeth and President Obama.
The Queen's visit a few days ago was a major success, and today President Obama is making a speech down the road a bit in College Green. I don't think I'll be able to see him from my window but I will certainly be able to hear his speech. (They are testing out the PA system right now)
Obama is such an important figure in history, being the first African-Irish-American President, but he is also a hugely inspiring speaker, and I am really looking forward to hearing his speech later to-day.
I blogged before on how one of the pictures in "Lincoln and his Boys" by Rosemary Wells, was inspired by Obama's election, and likewise I was thinking about Obama when I created the image on the cover of my latest book "No One But You".
Written by Douglas Wood, "No One But You" was published in the US last Tuesday.

The Academic Atelier Tradition in the USA

Here is a very interesting blog for anyone who , like me, is passionate about drawing and painting from life.
It is the blog of the Grand Central Academy in New York, whose mission is to "offer a public place for the revival of the classical art tradition; to foster and support a community of artists in pursuit of aesthetic refinement, a high level of skill and beauty."

It all looks a wee bit too disciplined and dogmatic for my liking now, but I have to say I would have loved to have gone to a college like this when I was eighteen. Compared to the laid back approach that British Art Colleges had twenty years ago, there is clearly a very strong work ethic at the Grand Central Academy, and the students here are really learning skills of an extraordinarily high level.

As you can see from the image, they also have a very strong sculpture department.
This Lincoln sculpture is by one of their tutors, Jiwoong Cheh

The Publication of "Lincoln and His Boys"

Tomorrow, is the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, and "Lincoln and His Boys" written by Rosemary Wells and illustrated by me is now in the bookshops. I've been asked on to the Tubridy show tomorrow morning on RTE Radio 1 to talk about the book, and about Lincoln generally.
Kevin Stevens who wrote a very interesting piece on Lincoln in the Irish Times yesterday will also be there, so hopefully we'll all have an interesting discussion.

Here, to celebrate his birthday, is a happy picture from the early part of "Lincoln and His Boys".

The Man in the Purple Suit

Here is a shot of me at work in my studio.
I'm finishing off a pretty big portrait of my great friend Aidan Mulholland. I have depicted him wearing a purple suit and silver shoes which I think reflect his exuberant personality.
We were at school together many years ago, and have stayed friends ever since. (He's actually a few months older than me in case you were wondering.)
Aidan's path has taken him into music and architecture, and he spent quite some time living in Spain. You can read about him and listen to some of his music here.
He did a wonderful soundtrack to the Bee-man of Orn DVD, and, being tall and rangy, he was the ideal person to model for Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln and his Boys.
I'll post a shot of the portrait when it's finished.

The Lincoln family's first Christmas at the White House

February 12th is the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth, and Candlewick and Walker will be publishing "Lincoln and his Boys" by Rosemary Wells, and illustrated by me.
Here is the scene showing the Lincoln family's first Christmas at the White House.
If you can get hold of a copy I can really reccommend this book. The story is incredibly moving.

Lincoln at the Great Western Railroad Depot in Springfield

Here's another from "Lincoln and his Boys".
The speech I quoted from in the previous post was spoken at the Great Western Railroad Depot in Springfield, Illinois. The depot is still there, preserved as it was on the day that Lincoln left.
When I visited Springfield with Rosemary Wells, we sought it out, and I took hundreds of photos from every angle, knowing that I would be illustrating this scene of Lincoln and Willie returning from Chicago. However there was no way I could make the composition work and also show the depot in the background.
This was a case where it was important to jettison the great research I had done for the sake of a better picture.
That kind of background research is never wasted though. It meant a lot to me to stand where Lincoln had been, and to see some of the things he and his family had seen.
Here is a shot of the depot as it is to-day.

My Obama picture from "Lincoln and his Boys"

In this historic week in US politics, I thought I'd share this picture from the forthcoming book, "Lincoln and his Boys" by Rosemary Wells.
I was working on it at about the time that Barack Obama declared in Springfield, Illinois, that he was running for President.

Shortly after the confederate stronghold of Richmond was taken by the Union forces, Lincoln was urged to parade with troops through the centre of the ruined city. Not wishing to glory in the defeat of the South, he chose instead to walk through Richmond with his son, Tad.
This was a very tricky picture for me, in that Rosemary's text accurately describes how the former slaves threw themselves at Lincoln's feet calling him Father Abraham.
But was important for me to present the scene in a dignified way. I wanted to show the joy of the crowd surrounding Lincoln and Tad, but I needed to hint at the mixed emotions and foreboding that some of the people would have had, and also to show a measure of defiant strength.
All of this is focussed in the thoughtful individual holding his hat at the lower left in what is compositionally, the counterpoint to Lincoln's position.

Obama is a stirring orator, but he'll have to go some to match Abraham Lincoln, whose speeches contain some of the most poetic and inspiring words ever spoken.
As President elect Obama prepares to take on his great challenges, to address the financial crisis and to try to redeem the position of the US in the world, I think of some lines that Lincoln spoke as he left Springfield for the last time, knowing that he was facing almost inevitably into Civil War.

"My friends, no one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of the Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail...."

"Lincoln and his Boys"

If you watched that slideshow/film showing all my book covers you might have noticed "Lincoln and his Boys" at the end.
It's a wonderful novel by Rosemary Wells dealing with the close loving relationship that Lincoln had with his sons, Willie and Tad.
I learned a lot from Rosemary's story, and from all the research I did into the subject. And the more I read about Lincoln, the more I liked and admired him.
Rosemary and I even took a trip together to Springfield, Illinois to visit Lincoln's home and the Presidential Museum and Library there.
It was great to see the exact carpet or curtains or wallpaper that Lincoln and his family knew. Unfortunately the fashion then was for very garish colours and extravagant patterning.

I was able to do lots of other really useful research, including a visit to the Railway Depot that has been preserved as it was the day that Lincoln and his family departed Springfield for Washington.
Too much research can be a bad thing though. It can get in the way of making a good simple and striking illustration.
When you have read all those books and photographed all those settings, it can be very hard to choose to leave a lot of extraneous stuff out. I'm too close to the book to tell how successful or otherwise I was with my pictures. In ten years time I'll be able to decide.
I only had to do fifteen or so plates for this book, but I had enough material for fifty pictures, and there were so many scenes that I really wanted to show.
I suspect I will have to revisit the fascinating subject of Abraham Lincoln in some way in the future.

Rosemary is best known for writing and illustrating for younger children, but this book shows her tremendous talent as a novelist.
The book is published in the USA in January 2009.