Line and Form

by Walter Crane

A companion volume to 'The Bases of Design', this book is based off Walter Crane's lectures at the Manchester Municipal School of Art.

Genres: Art

298 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1900

About the author

Walter Crane was an English artist and book illustrator. He is considered, along with Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway, one of the strongest contributors to the child's nursery motif that the genre of English children's illustrated literature would exhibit in its developmental stages in the latter 19th century.

His work featured some of the more colorful and detailed beginnings of the child-in-the-garden motifs that would characterize many nursery rhymes and children's stories for decades to come. He was part of the Arts and Crafts movement and produced an array of paintings, illustrations, children's books, ceramic tiles and other decorative arts. Crane is also remembered for his creation of a number of iconic images associated with the international Socialist movement.

Reviews

[Wetdryvac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seriously worth reading, and even more, simply examining the examples for feel. It's really wild seeing Crane approach Durer's work, for example, and seeing elements of things I learned far less well from instructors explaining things far less well, and just having element after element click into place.

Which probably means I'll be arguing with ink again soon. Oh gods.

Of note, the latter quarter of the book doesn't work nearly as well.

[Sula · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strong start, that helps the reader better understand how illustrators at the time created some deceptively simple, but very pleasing illustrations and designs. However the second half becomes weaker, perhaps partly because some of it is less relevant to the modern reader and what they are likely to work on, and also because the chapter on colour is very descriptive (due to the age of the book the paintings are black and white reproductions) and therefore difficult to follow.

[Thaw]

Good.

[Jane Modica-Cliff · Rating 1 out of 5]

No illustration

Where are the illustration s it's meaningless without them! The whole way through it refers to picture s that are not there as far as I can see!