William Joyce

I try not to pass up opportunities to look at the original art of master illustrators. I was more than well rewarded at the Los Angeles Central Library show of William Joyce's gorgeous work. Joyce's brilliant use of color is particularly remarkable as he works from a palette of only 4 colors (plus black and white). Equally impressive are his monochromatic pencil drawings - subdued yet powerful in their ability to immediately engage the viewer. He is fearless in his compositions, often cropping in unexpected ways or quite comfortably incorporating large expanses of negative space. I ran across this video of Joyce talking about his stories, a welcome addition to his delightful The World of William Joyce. There's much to be learned from the great Mr. Joyce.