"Mirko Hanak was one of Czechoslovakia's most popular illustrators of children's books. He studied at the Academy of Arts in Prague and published the first of his dozens successful books in 1951. Hanak's love of nature has often taken him into the wilds with his sketch book to capture birds and animals in their natural settings. It is for these animal pictures that Hanak is famous in his native land and abroad."
A brief write up from one his illustrated books. I am very fond of Hanak's art, because it combines Asian painting techniques with Western sensibilities.
Just imagine...for a moment, an animated feature influenced by his art! It would be entirely possible as a mix between hand drawn and CG animation techniques. But for now we are stuck with nauseating realism. As for myself I am trying my best to offer a new look for my film Mushka, combining drawings with CG rendering.
I will post more of Hanak's stunning work soon !
Born in the former German "Democratic" Republic, I grew up with his books "Bilderzoo", "Es wird Abend im Wald" and "Eisvögel".
ReplyDeleteI always loved the style of his drawings and paintings. He put a lot of emotions in all those pictures. Some animals really scared me, and some made want to cuddle them.
Hanak was a great artist. Thanks Andreas for sharing the nice pictures.
Hoping for some kind of move in CG from realism to modernism. (:
ReplyDeletethe goat is my favourite! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteVery much looking forward to seeing your film. I think it's look and aesthetic will be a "breath of fresh air".
ReplyDeleteJust hearing you refer to computer animated movies as "nauseating realism" puts a smile on my face. :)
ReplyDeleteMirko Hanak is one of my favorite Czech artists. I studied his work in school and was mesmerized by his art. I still occasionally pick up Japanese watercolor brushes when I paint forest animals. I look forward to Mushka with all that I am. Thank you for not giving up on the art of hand drawn animation when the industry of animation has given up on it. You are a treasure.
ReplyDeleteThis bring back some childhood memories. I was born in Cuba in the 80's and we had a lot of russian, czech and polish books. I remember these beautiful ilustrations, always depicting animal. It's good to finally know who the artist was. Thank you for sharing this, Andreas! Looking forward to see Mushka!
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