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to go on a quest in order to find her brothers.”<\/em>
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It’s gonna get dark and heavy and raw<\/em> around here this morning, y’all. <\/p>\n However, if you look at 7-Imp’s home page right now, you’ll see some cute, fluffy dogs; some endearing cats; a screamingly adorable baby bear; a dancing egg; and even more happy happy joy joy (the wonderfully creepy bats from The Brothers Hilts<\/a><\/strong> being the one exception). So, I say it’s high time we got ominous and grim (and<\/em> Grimm) around here, don’t you think? Hey, it’s only fair, and it’s my turn,<\/em> says The Sinister, given last week<\/a><\/strong> was a heartwarming story about books<\/em>.<\/p>\n That’s to say: If you’re still sipping your coffee and aren’t in the mood to read about bones and blood and angry ravens tearing at someone and straight-up murder<\/em> as only fairy tales (or, in this case, fairy tale adaptations) can tell ’em, consider yourself warned now.<\/p>\n It’s the first Sunday of the month, which means we get to look at the work of a student or brand-new illustrator, and today I’ve got a German student of illustration, named J\u00f6rdis Brier<\/a><\/strong>, who was actually once a student of American illustrator Shadra Strickland<\/a><\/strong>. One of J\u00f6rdis’s classroom projects (not yet published) is the subject of today’s post, and I’m going to let her tell you more about it. <\/p>\n “<\/strong><\/font>My name is J\u00f6rdis Brier. I’m a 22-year-old Illustration student from Hamburg, Germany (cold, rainy Hamburg). I’m in my seventh semester. The second part of my third year I spent at the Maryland Institute College of Art<\/a><\/strong> (MICA) in Baltimore.<\/p>\n My style is usually pretty dark and sinister, but I also like cute, bright, and colorful illustrations, like the ones Jan Brett<\/a><\/strong> or Graeme Base<\/a><\/strong> do. They are gorgeous.<\/p>\n But with my style, for sure, one of my favorites is Shaun Tan<\/a><\/strong>, Chris Van Allsburg<\/a><\/strong>, or Einar Turkowski<\/a><\/strong> (a German illustrator).<\/p>\n My favorite medium at the moment is scratchboard. Usually, I work with pencil and, in the rare case of color, usually Polychromos<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n I loved living and studying in Baltimore. During my time there, I lived with the greatest roommates ever. Most of them were artists, too, so I also got help from them — when I got stuck on a sketch or an idea. <\/p>\n The four months at MICA inspired me a lot and helped me to develop my style — especially my illustration teacher, Shadra Strickland<\/a><\/strong>, who is not just a great teacher, but also an awesome illustrator. She helped me to be conscious and consistent with my project, ‘The 7 Ravens.’<\/p>\n The book is about a little girl who is searching for her brothers, who left the family long ago. The parents neglected them because of the newborn sister, so they turned into ravens and flew away. When the sister becomes old enough, she tries to find them, but as she gets to the nest and the brothers realize it’s her, they kill her, still filled with jealousy. And, eventually, they turn into boys again.<\/p>\n My guideline was the story from the Brothers Grimm<\/a><\/strong>. The original is a very sweet story with a happy ending, which bored me a little bit, so I worked on the text till the words fit to the pictures in my head.<\/p>\n I just had an exhibiton with my illustrations, printed on aluminum plates [pictured below].“<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n Thanks to J\u00f6rdis for sharing. Pictured below are some sketches. You may click each one to enlarge and see up close. <\/p>\n All images are \u00a9 J\u00f6rdis Brier and produced with her permission.<\/em><\/p>\n Note for any new readers: 7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks is a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you. New kickers are always welcome. <\/p>\n 1)<\/strong><\/font> The NPR critic, Marc Hirsh, is BRILLIANT. To what he wrote here<\/a><\/strong> at NPR this week, I say: Ditto. <\/p>\n 2)<\/strong><\/font> I enjoyed what K. T. Horning wrote here<\/a><\/strong> about Sendak, librarians, and censorship. To top it all off, it includes an illustration from the one and only Sergio Ruzzier<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n 3)<\/strong><\/font> Speaking of dark tales, as we are this week, on a whim I grabbed Neil Gaiman’s<\/a><\/strong> Newbery-winning The Graveyard Book<\/a><\/em><\/strong> off my bookshelf and am reading it to my girls. It’s really wonderful, I’m finding, to read his prose aloud, especially as a break in reading series’ books (which we’re also doing). <\/p>\n 4)<\/strong><\/font> School starts this week for my girls. I’ll miss them, but then I’ll have quiet days once again for working, since I work from home, as well as time again for daily, mind-clearing walks. (This is definitely a mixed blessing, as they say: I love spending time with them, but I won’t<\/em> miss, say, the high-pitched kitty voice the eight-year-old takes on when pretending to make Pumpkinfacehead speak. So help me, I love the eight-year-old, but that voice makes it so that I have to read each sentence, when working, repeatedly. It also makes me wonder if I’m very slowly going INSANE.)<\/p>\n 5)<\/strong><\/font> What’s that? You need a moment of transcendent beauty and want to hear Rufus<\/a><\/strong> sing Shakespeare’s Sonnet 20<\/a><\/strong>, since his stupendous voice is like warm butter wrapped up in melted chocolate with a dollop of honey and maybe even sliding down hot toast? I can help with that.<\/p>\n<\/a>
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till the blood sloshed out of her body, her eyes and her mouth
and continued till she lie motionless and dead on the ground.”<\/em>
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and the ravens turned into boys again.”<\/em>
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<\/center><\/p>\nI have been a super devoted fan of Sam, pictured right, for 25 years now (GASP!), so naturally I think Hirsh has impeccable taste. I love<\/em> what he penned there, a lovely tribute to her music and what it means to us fans (even if we stumble over our words to describe it). <\/p>\n