Town Mouse, Country Mouse, 1994
Here’s a fun fact: I would love to illustrate a children’s book someday. It’s been a dream of mine for a very long time. The way that such books must emphasize whimsy and charm above all else- it’s so different from any other use of illustration. Artist (and author) Jan Brett is one of my largest inspirations for wanting to do this.
Brett was born and raised in Norwell, Massachusetts. She wanted to be an artist from an early age, being so fascinated by her picture books that she felt like she could enter their pages. She studied at Boston’s School of Museum of Fine Arts and spent the 1970s making commercial work for magazines. She wrote and illustrated her first book, Fritz and the Beautiful Horses, in 1981. Since then, she has chased her childhood intrigue, trying to create scenes with enough character to convince others that they are real. Behind each drawing is hours of field work: Brett travels all over the world to experience the culture, architecture, weather, and costumes of the locations she bases her stories on.
Brett posing with a copy of The Mermaid, 2017, alongside one of her inspirations
If I had to choose one word to describe Brett’s illustrations specifically, it would be “cozy”. When I envision someone reading one of her books, I imagine it happening around 6 PM on a frigid, snowy evening, perhaps wrapping up a day of school closures. A mother has the fireplace going while her child sits in her lap underneath a blanket. He or she probably has some kind of snack and is making a mess of crumbs as mom does her best to voice the wide variety of characters.
Hedgie's Surprise, 2000
Brett is quite fond of animals. Her stories often revolve around interactions between numerous different animals, such as in The Hat, or between animals and people, such as in Hedgie’s Surprise. Many of these stories are original creations, but she has also retold and illustrated quite a few fables like Ukraine’s The Mitten and Aesop’s Town Mouse, Country Mouse.
Beauty and the Beast, 2012
Her color palette strikes a perfect balance of saturation. Brett outlines her work in black and then uses watercolor paint for the rest. Most of her characters and backgrounds are rustic, somewhat muted, and rely heavily on neutrals and earth tones. This is not surprising considering her aspirations for realism and her frequent use of animals and nature. Dotted throughout her works are splashes of vibrant hues that draw the viewer’s attention to things that are not necessarily key details but instead what seem to be Brett’s favorite details. You can tell that in any given scene, there is one specific component of it that she especially loved drawing and painting.
The Animal Santa, 2014
Speaking of details though, something I notice is that illustrators for children’s books tend to veer in one of two directions: toward great simplicity or extreme detail. Brett definitely favors the nitty gritty. Bowls, pots, and pans have intricate designs. Blankets and upholstery have embroidered patterns. Clothes especially are adorned with numerous stitches, prints, and cuffs. It's quite rare to see a completely plain article of clothing in one of her stories!
As a manifestation of her love for details, she also provides wonderful depictions of texture. The fur on animals, the cracks in a cookie, the rough bark of tree, the bumps on an armadillo’s shell, she is crazy about depicting textures. I mentioned earlier that Brett strives to create scenes that feel real and tangible, and I think she absolutely smashes this goal. I can so very easily "feel" each of her works.
One of my favorite depictions of texture in her works is on the covers of The Mitten and The Snowy Nap. It's not with the animals or the titular mitten though- it's with the snow. Brett could have very easily just drawn some amorphous heaps of snow onto the pine trees without consideration for the shapes and formation of the branches beneath them. Instead, however, she shades tiny crevices and edges on the snow where it slightly sags off this branch or just barely dips between the needles of another branch.
The Mitten, 1989
The Snowy Nap, 2018
It's far from necessary- and I don't mean that in a condescending way, as if fine details aren't necessary for children’s books because children won't notice them or won't care. What I mean is that many artists will reserve a majority of detail work for the main subjects and give only sparse details to the background. And this is done with good reason: to prevent the illustration from becoming too busy to be easily navigated by the gaze. But Jan Brett skillfully incorporates lots of details in both the foreground and background without overwhelming the viewer. It’s absolutely delightful to see this difficult endeavor done well; it's like when you see eggs benedict on a restaurant menu, order it, and are pleasantly surprised to see that the egg yolk is actually still runny and the hollandaise sauce isn’t curdled. Lots of people can cook scrambled or hardboiled eggs, but far fewer of them can make a good eggs benedict.
Town Mouse, Country Mouse, 1994
If there’s any parents, aunts, uncles, or grandparents reading this, I ask you to read at least one of Brett’s works with your child, niece, nephew, or grandchild. Don’t get me wrong, her works aren’t mandatory childhood literature or anything; a young’un will not be missing out on any moral, ethical, or creative developmental milestones if they aren’t exposed to her books. I just think her work is truly endearing and she deserves to have every person know of her, sort of like how a Mormon thinks everybody should know about Jesus Christ.
Cinders: A Chicken Cinderella, 2013
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You can find Brett's website here: About Jan Brett
You can find Brett's Facebook page here: (1) Facebook
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