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“When the king learned that his precious princess Briar Rose had been cursed to prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and sleep for a hundred years,” says Scott Gustafson, “he commanded every single one of the ominous devices in the kingdom to be destroyed. And so they were — except for one . . . .
“It is exactly one century to the day and a young prince has come to see for himself if the ancient, thorn-shrouded castle is truly enchanted. Tiptoeing past the sleeping guards and up the grand staircase, he enters a darkened chamber. The mists of time swirl about his feet as light sifts through the overgrown windows. Drawing back the heavy curtain, he falls instantly in love with the sleeping princess who has been waiting, just for him, for one hundred years.”
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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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