{"id":10060,"date":"2019-01-20T14:16:37","date_gmt":"2019-01-20T19:16:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=10060"},"modified":"2019-01-20T14:16:37","modified_gmt":"2019-01-20T19:16:37","slug":"ed-emberley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2019\/01\/20\/ed-emberley\/","title":{"rendered":"Ed Emberley\u2019s Classic How-To-Draw Books Inspire Cambridge Library Mural By Caleb Neelon"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1970, \u201cEd Emberley\u2019s Drawing Book of Animals\u201d was published, the first in a long line of how-to draw books by the Ipswich author that have gone on to inspire millions. Among them is Caleb Neelon, who spent the past couple weeks painting a tribute in the Children\u2019s Room at the Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway.<\/p>\n

Neelon is not just any admirer of Emberley. With designer Todd Oldham, he authored the 2015 book \u201cEd Emberley\u201d (Ammo Books). And he curated the 2017 \u201cKAHBAHBLOOOM: The Art and Storytelling of Ed Emberley\u201d <\/a>exhibit at the Worcester Art Museum.<\/p>\n

\"Caleb<\/a>
Caleb Neelon pains his Ed Emberley “Drawing Books” mural at the Cambridge Public Library’s Children’s Room, Jan. 17, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A squiggly purple character that populates Neelon\u2019s own murals was inspired by Emberley\u2019s how-to-draw books. And the Cambridge artist has painted Emberley tribute murals at the Boston Children\u2019s Hospital<\/a>, with Souther Salazar, and for the Worcester exhibition. (Neelon was not involved in the Emberley drawing books mural completed in Malden<\/a> last spring.)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy did I think I could do a drawing book?\u201d Emberley told me in 2015. As a boy growing up in Cambridge, he learned to draw Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy from the Sunday newspapers. \u201cI also could draw a submarine because the Sunday paper showed me how to make a submarine by making a rectangle, a triangle for the bow, a triangle for the stern, a rectangle for the top, another small rectangle. And it showed me how to make a tank by making two circles, a large circle and a small circle, joining them together and making a rectangle like that. I suddenly realized in my 30s, I looked back and I said, \u2018Yes, I can still draw those two things today. I can\u2019t draw Mickey Mouse and I can\u2019t draw Goofy and I can\u2019t draw Donald Duck, but I can draw those two things.\u2019 Those two things were marked down to very simple shapes. I said, \u2018Well, what if I could start with just three shapes\u2014a circle, a rectangle and a triangle?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ed<\/a>
Ed Emberley “Drawing Books” mural by Caleb Neelon at the Cambridge Public Library’s Children’s Room, Jan. 17, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The drawing books originated as a sort of placeholder between what Emberley envisioned as more substantive projects. In 1968, a year after being one of the runners up for children\u2019s publishing highest honor, the Caldecott Medal, Ed Emberley won the prize for \u201cDrummer Hoff,” a rhyme about elaborate preparations for firing a canon that he lavishly illustrated with woodcuts. As a follow up, he planned an elaborate masterpiece.<\/p>\n

\"Caleb<\/a>
Caleb Neelon pains his Ed Emberley “Drawing Books” mural at the Cambridge Public Library’s Children’s Room, Jan. 17, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cBut suddenly two years went by and I wasn\u2019t finished yet,\u201d Emberley told me in 2015. \u201cMy editor said, \u2018You know, you haven\u2019t published anything. You\u2019ve won a Caldecott Medal. Usually that means, \u2018We like your work. We\u2019d like you to do more.\u2019 \u2026 I said, \u2018I\u2019ve got this little book that I can turn out in two weeks. A novelty that might last a year or so.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Emberley\u2019s infecious idea was to simplify drawing into an alphabet of those three shapes plus two dots, three numbers, four squiggles and 10 letters which when combined could illustrate anything. He wrote in the introduction to the first one: \u201cIf you can draw these shapes, letters, numbers and things, you will be able to draw all the animals in this book.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"Caleb<\/a>
Caleb Neelon pains his Ed Emberley “Drawing Books” mural at the Cambridge Public Library’s Children’s Room, Jan. 17, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Caleb<\/a>
Caleb Neelon pains his Ed Emberley “Drawing Books” mural at the Cambridge Public Library’s Children’s Room, Jan. 17, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ed<\/a>
Ed Emberley “Drawing Books” mural by Caleb Neelon at the Cambridge Public Library’s Children’s Room, Jan. 17, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ed<\/a>
Ed Emberley “Drawing Books” mural by Caleb Neelon at the Cambridge Public Library’s Children’s Room, Jan. 17, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Caleb<\/a>
Caleb Neelon pains his Ed Emberley “Drawing Books” mural at the Cambridge Public Library’s Children’s Room, Jan. 17, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Caleb<\/a>
Caleb Neelon pains his Ed Emberley “Drawing Books” mural at the Cambridge Public Library’s Children’s Room, Jan. 17, 2019. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1970, \u201cEd Emberley\u2019s Drawing Book of Animals\u201d was published, the first in a long line of how-to draw books by the Ipswich author that have gone on to inspire millions. Among them is Caleb Neelon, who spent the past couple weeks painting a tribute in the Children\u2019s Room at the Cambridge Public Library, 449 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10056,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,107],"tags":[42,507,211],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10060"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10060"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10066,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10060\/revisions\/10066"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}