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The Work of Marc Simont
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From: Megan Schliesman <Schliesman>
Date: Tue, 03 Apr 2001 09:29:09 -0500
As an opening to our discussion about the work of Marc Simont, we are pleased to have Anne Hoppe, Senior Editor at HarperCollins Children's Books, joining us and sharing her perspective as Mr. Simont's editor.
She has asked me to post her initial comments. Please offer your thoughts on Marc Simont's work, and any questions you have for Anne Hoppe as well.
Megan
Comments from Anne Hoppe:
I have had the pleasure of working with Marc for the last two years. I am happy to share my appreciation of him, and I hope my publishing colleagues, many of whom have also worked with Marc, will also join in with their own perspectives.
One of the great things about working in children's publishing is getting to make books with authors and illustrators whose work you have long admired. It is rare though to have the opportunity to work with someone who has been actively publishing in children's books for over six decades-sixty-plus years as an illustrator and fifty years as an author as well--and whose work remains as appealing and youthful as ever.
With sixty years of work behind them, many artists would be ready to take it easy or simply rest on their laurels. Not so with Marc. After nearly one hundred children's books, Marc remains careful with every detail of his work, and he is attentive to, and respectful of, his audience--children for his picture books. He is constantly studying his illustrations, wondering what he can do to make them both accessible and just plain fun to look at from a child's point of view.
What sixty years of illustrating has given Marc is the illusion of ease. He does what only the most talented artists can do: He makes his work look easy. When you discuss an idea for an illustration with him, he whips out a pencil and sketches the thought, capturing and improving the idea tenfold in about 30 seconds or less. And he does so without flourish, as though this is a natural part of communication. You're left wondering why we don't all use pencil sketches as part of conversation, and it takes a moment to remember how rare this ability is. Marc's rapidity in sketching is aided by decades of practice and a thorough understanding of how to translate words, actions, and emotions into two dimensional images.
In his eighties now, Marc travels the 100 miles between his home in Connecticut and his publishers in New York City several times in the course of creating a book. That is, if he isn't in Barcelona visiting family, or out skiing if there's been a good snowfall. He chooses his work carefully and wants to be free to commit himself fully to the projects that are closest to his heart. The intelligence, grace, humor--and good humor--that characterizes his body of work continue in full force.
Anne Hoppe Senior Editor HarperCollins Children's Books
Received on Tue 03 Apr 2001 09:29:09 AM CDT
Date: Tue, 03 Apr 2001 09:29:09 -0500
As an opening to our discussion about the work of Marc Simont, we are pleased to have Anne Hoppe, Senior Editor at HarperCollins Children's Books, joining us and sharing her perspective as Mr. Simont's editor.
She has asked me to post her initial comments. Please offer your thoughts on Marc Simont's work, and any questions you have for Anne Hoppe as well.
Megan
Comments from Anne Hoppe:
I have had the pleasure of working with Marc for the last two years. I am happy to share my appreciation of him, and I hope my publishing colleagues, many of whom have also worked with Marc, will also join in with their own perspectives.
One of the great things about working in children's publishing is getting to make books with authors and illustrators whose work you have long admired. It is rare though to have the opportunity to work with someone who has been actively publishing in children's books for over six decades-sixty-plus years as an illustrator and fifty years as an author as well--and whose work remains as appealing and youthful as ever.
With sixty years of work behind them, many artists would be ready to take it easy or simply rest on their laurels. Not so with Marc. After nearly one hundred children's books, Marc remains careful with every detail of his work, and he is attentive to, and respectful of, his audience--children for his picture books. He is constantly studying his illustrations, wondering what he can do to make them both accessible and just plain fun to look at from a child's point of view.
What sixty years of illustrating has given Marc is the illusion of ease. He does what only the most talented artists can do: He makes his work look easy. When you discuss an idea for an illustration with him, he whips out a pencil and sketches the thought, capturing and improving the idea tenfold in about 30 seconds or less. And he does so without flourish, as though this is a natural part of communication. You're left wondering why we don't all use pencil sketches as part of conversation, and it takes a moment to remember how rare this ability is. Marc's rapidity in sketching is aided by decades of practice and a thorough understanding of how to translate words, actions, and emotions into two dimensional images.
In his eighties now, Marc travels the 100 miles between his home in Connecticut and his publishers in New York City several times in the course of creating a book. That is, if he isn't in Barcelona visiting family, or out skiing if there's been a good snowfall. He chooses his work carefully and wants to be free to commit himself fully to the projects that are closest to his heart. The intelligence, grace, humor--and good humor--that characterizes his body of work continue in full force.
Anne Hoppe Senior Editor HarperCollins Children's Books
Received on Tue 03 Apr 2001 09:29:09 AM CDT
