E.H Shephard
I chose E.H Shephard for my first illustrator. I have enjoyed his illustrations for many years and have owned some of the Winnie the Pooh books. I love his style and knew I could use the Zig Clean Color Real Brush pens to get a similar watercolour effect for my illustration.
For my research I used the internet to find the image below on which I would base my illustration and a book called: 'The Story of E.H Shephard - The Man Who Drew Pooh'. See below for my notes from the book.
'Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day' - E.H Shepard.
For my illustration, since we were to create something similar, I decided to use the theme of the 'Blustery Day' but use my own animal characters, a mouse and chicken. I used Zig Clean Color Real Brush pens, a water brush pen and Copic fine liner in black on watercolour paper.
I believe E.H Shephard would have used traditional watercolours and possibly a dip ink pen for this illustration and so I tried to use more contemporary art supplies that would mimic these traditional ones.
The brush pens worked really well for this style and the Copic fine liner finished it off really well. I was pleased with the outcome of this illustration, especially as it was hard working in someone else's style.
For my contemporary illustrator I chose one of my favourite artists Marisa Cummings from Creative Thursday. I have followed her work for years and she has been a great inspiration as well as a mentor to me.
I chose her illustration called: 'Flora, fauna bear'
I used a wood panel to create this illustration, with acrylic paints and charcoal pencil. I believe Marisa uses a mix of acrylic paints, gouache and conte' crayon for her work.
I found doing this illustration the most insightful, strange and fun at the same time. I found myself wanting to draw the character how I would instead of how Marisa does. I chose to do a similar illustration overall but change the bear to a bunny because bunny's feature a lot in my work and Marisa also paints bunny's as well.
I was hard to keep checking and making sure to draw and paint like the original, I found myself feeling so grateful for my own style which was a welcome thing since I have been struggling with boredom and wondering if I wanted to completely change direction with my own personal work. This helped me appreciate where I was and what I do.
I both illustrations I learnt a lot, I feel they were fairly successful but didn't capture the depth like the original artists did.
I don't feel the work of E.H Shepard felt old-fashioned. Watercolour and ink are still very popular amongst artists today and you can capture great movement using this medium.
Marisa's work to me feels comforting, uplifting and is so cute. I love how she pushes boundaries in her work and makes them how she wants, sometimes mixing abstract with book illustration styles. She has taught me that you can express great things though cute characters and since I've always had a love of animals, this also comes quite naturally to me too. I also love the colours she uses and the mediums.
In many ways these artists are very similar, they both use animals for characters to tell a story and evoke emotion from the viewer. E.H Shephard's illustrations have a lot of movement in them, a fondness and nostalgic feeling. Marisa's work is calming, still and yet evokes emotion even in it's simplicity.
Creative Thursday Notes:
Creative Thursday was born out of a need for more creative time. Marisa had a full time interior design job after graduating in graphic design. She decided Thursday's would be her day to be creative no matter what.
This soon developed into creating more days of the week and eventually into the business she has today.
Marisa is an artist, illustratior, author and media enthusiast from L.A. Her work includes a children's book, art book, many beautiful paintings, a podcast, tv series produced from Youtube and to date her own gallery space in L.A. She sells her work through her website, licensing and her own gallery space.
Notes created from personal friendship with Marisa and her website: www.creativethursday.com
E.H Shephard Research Notes:
Ernest Howard Shepard was an early 20th century illustrator. His parents were Henry Dunkin Shephard 1845-1902 and Harriet Jessie Lee d.1890.
Harriet’s father was the well known watercolourist William Lee.
Henry himself was a highly respected architect and they both encouraged Ernest to always carry a pencil and have some paper close by to draw anything that interested him. Ernest drew anything, anywhere and at any time.
Ernest had a photographic memory, he loved to capture battle scenes and everyday life happenings.
He would also paint portraits of his sister Ethel, who was a pianist. Clearly Ernest was born into a very creative family.
One of Ernest’s portraits of Ethel was accepted into the Royal Academy Summer exhibition.
Ernest not only was a talented artist but also a talented writer. He loved to share his world in writing and drawings.
In the year of the Golden Jubilee, Ernest began to realise his gift and recorded more events and important things happening around him, one of them was a shop window beautifully arranged to celebrate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee. Ernest drew a portrait of the Queen also.
Ernest continued to develop his drawing ability at St Paul’s School and then he moved on to study at Heatherleys school of Fine Art in 1896 for 1 year. It was there he got the nickname ‘Kipper’.
His talent won him a scholarship to the Royal Academy schools, 5 years of free tuition starting in 1897.
It was here Ernest started using a ‘student notebook’ as well as his scraps of paper to draw on. After 2 years at the academy schools he won two scholarships which put him in the top rank of student artists. In 1900 he was awarded a silver medal for figure painting and third prize for figure drawing.
By now he had established himself as an artist and was already supplementing his scholarship money by selling his drawings and illustrations to magazines.
During this time he met several influential ‘Americans’, one being a brilliant draughtsman, Edwin Abbey who then introduced him to the publication ‘Punch’. ‘Punch’ would later be the publisher of many of his art work.
Ernest and Florence were engaged in 1903 and in 1904 he exhibited his first painting, a portrait of his sister Ethel, at the Royal Academy. he also sold a picture at a gallery in South Africa and they used the money to get married.
On 28th September 1904, Ernest and Florence married at St Andrew’s church, Streatham. They rented a small house from then on in Shamley Green, near Guildford in Surrey. It was an early nineteenth century building called ‘Arden Cottage’. Ernest chose is because of it’s name since his family home had been called Arden, also.
It was quite a lifestyle to be commuting from the country into London. In those days it was seen to be quite rebellious.
They had a lot of work to do to the house to make it a livable home, the many jobs that needed to be done became great subjects for Ernest to draw.
It was whilst living at ‘Arden Cottage’, that Ernest established himself as an illustrator. By 1906 he had already had many illustrations excepted by various publishers including many well known books, such as David Copperfield. Two years into his marriage Ernest has his first illustration published in Punch.
Both Ernest and Florence were very social people and often entertained at their cottage, when they were apart from each other they continued to write letters to each other.
On 7th July 1907 their first child was born, a baby boy which they named Graham. He was christened on 22nd September and a grand tea party followed. On Christmas day 2 years later they had a daughter, named Mary. Both children inspired many drawings, some of which can be see in the Shephard Archive at Surrey University.
As their family had grown they needed a larger home and decided to move to ‘Red Cottage’ in another part of Shamley Green. The garden was much bigger and Ernest had a studio built out there.
Florence continued her art whilst bringing up their two children and Ernest’s art career continued to flourish.
War was upon them and as Ernest was a married man, he was not allowed to volunteer. In 1915 he applied to the Royal Artillery and spent four months training at Weymouth and Llydd, while Florence stayed home with their children.
In May 1916 they were sent to war.
By the end of the war, Ernest found he was out of practice of drawing and had missed several opportunities to illustrate for Punch and other publications.
He continued to draw wherever he went, regularly sending letters home.
The battle of the Somme started in the early hours 1st July 1916, many of the men were killed, including Ernest’s brother Cyril.
Ernest didn’t find out about his brother’s death until he received a letter from his sister. He also found out that he was quite near where his brother had died and got permission to go and visit his brothers grave.
During his service to the army, Ernest continued to draw constantly using his sketchbooks to record where he was.
Ernest never lost his sense of humor in his drawings and continued to make funny cartoons and caricatures.
Towards the end of 1916, Ernest was commissioned to do a ‘drawing job for the Intelligence Department’. It turned out to be more of a task recording everything within view of the dugout.
During his leave in May 1918 he received the Military Cross from King George V. During his leave, Ernest was still able to produce further illustrations for Punch.
On the final stretch of the war, Ernest was able to send his illustrations to Punch and continue his official sketches as part of his duties. On 3rd November Austria surrendered and peace followed. Ernest found himself drawing abandoned military sites and groups of prisoners of war.
Following this he began creating cartoons of the officers and scenes.
Major Shephard returned home in 1919, carrying his ‘war souvenirs’ as every soldier did. He felt very strange no longer being a soldier.
Ernest worried about returning to illustrating, feeling he was out of practice and would need to relearn how to think about painting.
By now Ernest decided to put the war behind him and concentrate on re-establishing himself as an illustrator and cartoonist. He was commissioned to do a series of illustrations for ‘Pepys’ Diary’, he did not receive the pay he requested but an offer of an advance plus commission on future sales. This turned out to be a gamble worth taking since he continued to receive royalties years later.
Ernest was also commissioned to enter his war sketches into the ‘Royal Artillery War Commemoration book’.
All of Ernest’s professional work was carried out in his garden studio at Red Cottage including those for A.A Milne.
On 16th April 1921 Captain Ernest Howard Shephard was sworn in as a special constable for the county of Surrey. He was a man of service to his community both for the church and county.
In the Summer of 1921 Ernest was invited to become a member of the Punch Table. A gathering of administrative staff both writers and artists, who chose how the paper would be produced including its policies.
This was a great honor for Ernest and he really enjoyed it. It was one evening at the ‘Punch Table’ that Ernest was sitting next to E.V Lucas who was then the chairman of Methuen’s publishers. They had been offered some verses that were for children and written by A.A Milne. They wanted an artist to illustrate them. Ernest jumped at the chance.
Ernest met with A.A Milne and it soon became obvious they were a great match to work together. Ernest was expected to create fifty drawing and he would use models like he often did.
His son Graham had a teddy bear he was very attached to that he used as one of his models. He based his drawings of Christopher Robin on his earlier sketches of Graham as a six year old.
In 1923 was probably the most important year of Ernest’s career where his work was accepted by A.A Milne to be of standard to produce further work. These were a second book of poems and two books of Pooh Bear.
Ernest picked up further work for another book for children with another author.
Throughout 1924 he spent hours with A.A. Milne in Ashdown forest creating scenes for the adventures of Pooh, Piglet, Kanga, Roo, Eeyore and Tigger.
A.A. Milnes son Christopher Robin Milne played with Ernest’s son Graham making mud pies in Milnes garden at Hartfield, East Sussex.
Pooh bear was based on the teddy bear that Ernest’s son Graham owned and survived long enough to be passed down to Graham’s daughter Minette but was finished off by a dog after 1939. Piglet met the same fate according to Milne.
By now commissions were coming in constantly and Ernest was feeling the pressure. He even had to work on some on Boxing Day.
Florence’s health continued to decline and she was told by her doctor that moving to higher ground might help her asthma, so they decided to move and build a house at Pewley Down.
In 1926 the Winnie the Pooh books were published, the characters were to become established characters for children’s books from then on.
Ernest was receiving regular royalties from his book illustrations, enough for them to start building their new home at Pewley Down.
On 26th September 1927 Florence went to have a straight forward nasal operation to help her asthma but sadly she died under the anaesthetic. Ernest’s love of over a quarter of a century had died. Ethel, Ernest’s sister came to comfort the family and help with funeral arrangements.
For the first time in his life Ernest did not use his sketchbook. His diary entries were short and to the point. 27th September ‘Pie died’, 1st October ‘Funeral Shamley Green’. He didn’t write in his journal again for the rest of that year.
In his grief, Ernest turned to his drawings for ‘The House at Pooh Corner’, which he had only just begun. This kept him busy for the rest of the year and into the New year.
On 28th May 1928 the house at Pewley Down was ready. They called it ‘Long Meadow’ and this was now a chance for a new life.
At first Ernest struggled to draw at his new home but he was soon drawing ‘Pooh’ again happily.
The first big event at the new house was Graham’s 21st birthday in early July.
Ernest became very involved in his daughter Mary’s life, being her chauffeur and companion. They shopped together, went to the theatre and cinema and ate out often. During this time Ernest was developing his own circle of friends.
Ernest continued to illustrate on various books including ‘GOlden Age’ by Kenneth Grahame. On 11th October ‘The House at Pooh Corner’ wa published and was an immediate success.
Ernest loved sailing and decided to buy his own boat. An opportunity arose to purchase ‘White Owl’ a fifteen year old boat that hadn’t been used very much. The boat needed restoring and once it was Ernest, Mary and Graham sailed the boat to Devon.
Ernest maintained a very full life continuing to work on illustrations and going on boating trips, playing sports but most of all he kept on drawing.
In 1930 he was invited to illustrate ‘The Wind in the Willows’. Ernest thought that ‘Wind in the WIllows’ was such a perfect work that illustrations could not do it justice. However it had been illustrated by various artists before and he felt they hadn’t done a good enough job and so he took on the challenge.
Kenneth Grahame, like the illustrations Ernest had drawn and told him ‘I’m glad you've made them real’. Sadly Kenneth did not live long enough to see them published.
On 1st January 1934 Ernest bought a five year lease on an old house in Melina Place. It had a small garden but the main attraction was a large studio there. The family moved in there together.
Ernest was now Deputy Art Director of Punch, which took up lots of his time but he still had time to travel.
In 1935 the country had its focus on the Silver Jubilee of George V, then his death, the abdication crisis and the accession of George VI and so work for Ernest slowed right down.
By 1937, Ernest’s sister Ethel was a deaconess and also played the organ in the cathedral.
Ernest continued to travel, enjoying himself but he knew something bad was coming. In 1939 there was anticipation of another war.
During his visits to Devon, Ernest became friends with a man who owned a hotel that was in disrepair. He couldn’t afford to maintain it and developers wanted to knock it down to build a more modern hotel. Ernest decided to help financially to maintain it and also go to enjoy the owner's boat on hire.
On Sunday 3rd September it was declared that England and France were to go to war on Germany. Ernest went to the hospital to fill sandbags.
It was a somber time.
Punch carried on as usual and all the green spaces were turned into vegetable patches, people being encouraged to ‘Dig for Victory’.
In the late Spring of 1940 a group of men over military age gathered to form the ‘Local Defence Volunteers’. Captain E.H Shephard was appointed to command them.
By Sunday 16th June the LDV, now named ‘Home Guard’ wore full uniform and were fully armed as they patrolled the Downs.
Ethel, Ernest’s sister came back from India in poor health. She was found a place at a home run by Anglican Nuns and later died there peacefully on 15th November 1942.
Just like the previous war, Ernest used his drawing skills for military purposes. Ernest was kept very busy with ‘Home Guard’ and Punch.
‘Home Guard’ were like family to Ernest and he sent everyone individually a hand illustrated Christmas card.
In 1942 Ernest started to befriend a lady named Norah Carroll, they got on really well and enjoyed dinners together. With the war still on they didn’t get to see each other very much.
Graham got injured and was brought back to London to recover. He did and soon after Ernest drove him to the station, he was never to see him again.
A tribute was placed for Graham in ‘The Illustrated London News’.
On 8th November Ernest asked Norah to marry him. They married on 18th November 1944.
The ‘Home Guard’ was finally ended on 3rd December.
‘Tuesday 8th May 1945, V E Day’.
‘2nd September the Japanese surrendered, V J Day was celebrated and the country knew that the War was finally over.
Peace had come at last and Punch celebrated. In September Ernest was again invited to illustrate for the new Royal Artillery War Book.
In 1950 Ernest took on a little advertising work for ‘Horlicks’ and ‘Basildon Bond’. It was at this time Ernest started to enjoy painting more.
On 19th December Ernest went to visit A.A. Milne in Middlesex hospital. She was very frail but was pleased to see Ernest.
In 1953 work was picking up again and Ernest and his team of cartoonists were commissioned by Guinness to produce six large cartoons for posters which were seen throughout Britain during the Coronation of Elizabeth II. Punch also produced a special Coronation piece.
Excited to see the Coronation Procession, Norah took rugs and foods to London with her friend and they slept on the kerb to be able to see everything the following day. They did get to see the whole Procession even though it rained.
Norah and Ernest now decided ‘Long Meadow’ had become too big for them and were to look for another house.
By 1954 there was a new editor of Punch, Malcolm Muggeridge. He thought it was time Ernest gave up working. Ernest continued to do a few topical drawings but no more cartoons.
Despite this Ernest continued to illustrate for many books, including ‘Wild Goose’ by Roland Pertwee. He was now seventy-five!
Norah and Ernest had been house hunting for a whole year and still had not found anything. In January 1955 they finally found a house in the small village near Midhurst. ‘Long Meadow’ was sold on 3rd June and they then moved into ‘Woodmancote’.
They soon fitted into the community and regularly attended church there. Ernest often read the lessons.
In 1956 A.A Milne died, this caused Ernest great sadness.
Ernest continued to illustrate many more books including several illustrations for ‘The Secret Garden’ by Frances Hodgson-Burnett.
Ernest had made a promise to his son Graham before he died he would illustration his own book recording his life in 1887. Norah helped him with his poor grammar and typed the whole story herself.
Ernest wanted to dedicate the book to his son, this upset Norah so much she left the house for twenty-four hours. They reconciled when she returned.
Ernest decided to amend the dedication to ‘My Wife Norah and to the Memory of My Son Graham’.
After this Ernest started work on colour illustrations for A.A. Milne’s books.
To continue work on his autobiographies, Ernest, along with a lady from the New York Times and Norah went back to his childhood home. it was in a shabby state and Ernest actually took photos and was able to describe the place in great detail.
26th September 1957 Ernest's book ‘Drawn from Memory’ was published and got great attention. People soon realised that he was a great pen and ink artist outside of Pooh Bear and Punch!!
In 1958 Ernest was asked to illustrate a special dust jacket featuring Pooh bear dressed as a Roman Centurion and Piglet and a Legion Standard Bearer. The first was on sale in England in 1961.
In 1962 Ernest’s health started to decline. It started with a painful knee that was so bad he needed hospital visits and he declined work. By October he was given encouraging news, put on medication which he continued to take for a further 13 years.
Ater this Ernest put on an exhibition to raise funds for the local church. In December he and Norah went to Israel where they painted by the Sea of Galilee and sketched in Capernaum.
In the mid-sixties the copyright for all the Pooh characters was sold to Disney.
By 1965 Ernest had started publishing his own stories, ‘Ben and Brock’ being the first.
In 1969 the Victoria and Albert Museum accepted Ernests drawings of Pooh for their collection.
In 1972 Ernest was named on the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, appointing him an officer of ‘The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire’.
In 1974 Ernest gave his remaining works to the Vice Chancellor of the University of Surrey.
On 24th March 1976 Ernest Howard Shephard died at Midhurst in Sussex aged 96. Fifty years after the first publication of Winnie the Pooh.
Chandler, A.R. (2001) The story of E.H.Shepard: The man who Drew Pooh. United Kingdom: Jaydem Books.
Personal Response:
I am blown away by the life of E.H Shephard. I always thought of him as the one who illustrated Pooh. I had no idea what an incredible career he had as an illustrator and war artist. He must have sketched thousands of drawings in his lifetime. He was said to always have been drawing. He faced so much tragedy and yet he kept on drawing, he kept on illustrating. Not only was he such a successful illustrator who worked on many well known books he was also a great soldier, police officer and man of faith.
Such an interesting man and with all that he accomplished in his life he also managed to have many hobbies including sailing and travelling the world.
I am in awe of this wonderful illustrator, he has certainly given me a lot to consider for my own future as an artist and what legacy I could leave for future generations.
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