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"I was reacquainted with the Oz books while reading them to my son. I intended to read the series to him in order, starting with 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,' but I couldn't get my hands on it right away. When I finally found it, I noticed the copyright page original publication date, 1900 and realized we had an anniversary to celebrate! I'm especially pleased to be paying homage to the great Oz illustrators, W.W. Denslow and John R. Neill - that's their insignias 'carved' into the fence post in the image foreground. Denslow, who illustrated the first book, gave us portraits of Dorothy and her friends that are almost inseparable from the text, as definitive as the Tenniel illustrations for 'Alice in Wonderland.' As for Neill, who illustrated all 14 remaining books in the series . . . well, if L. Frank Baum paved the yellow road, Neill made every brick shine."
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Storytelling through pictures has always held a certain fascination for Scott
Gustafson; be they the moving images in animated cartoons, or the epic
illustrations of N. C. Wyeth. Upon entering the Chicago Academy of Fine Art,
Scott was 99% sure that he wanted to become an animator, but it was that 1%
that ultimately drew him more and more into the world of stretched canvas and
oil paint. "As an animator, "Gustafson says, "your contribution to a given
film is, by necessity, limited to whatever character you've been assigned. But
as an illustrator, you're responsible for locations, sets, costumes, props,
lighting and character designs, not to mention the overall mood and emotion of
a given painting. It's about the best job there is."
Over the nearly twenty-five years that span his career, he has had the
opportunity to fulfill commissions for a number of varied clients and
publishers such as Celestial Seasonings, Playboy magazine, Saturday Evening
Post, The Bradford Exchange, DreamWorks and The Greenwich Workshop. His
illustrated books include The Night Before Christmas, Peter Pan, Nutcracker,
as well as two original titles, Animal Orchestra and Alphabet Soup. His newest
release, Classic Fairy Tales, was recently awarded a Chesley award for best
interior book illustrations from the Association of Science Fiction and
Fantasy Artists and is currently in its third printing.
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