Bill Peckmann &Books &Illustration 11 Sep 2012 08:33 am
Fritz Baumgarten’s “Das Hochzeitsfest im Wiesengrund”
Hoppity comes back to town and gets maried, or in this case, at least, it’s Fritz Baumgarten. He’s a brilliant illustrator that Bill Peckmann introduced me to. He’s done a series of books in German, and Bill knows how much of a sucker I am for this ma’s illustration work. The book Bill sent me, here, is Das Hochzeitsfest im Wiesengrund or as we say in English, The Wedding in the Meadowland. I hope you enjoy it.
Book cover
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Many thanks to Bill Peckmann for sharing this excellent book.
on 11 Sep 2012 at 10:40 am 1.Stephen Macquignon said …
Thanks for posting
on 11 Sep 2012 at 3:13 pm 2.The Gee said …
I second the thanks for sharing.
I’m a sucker for the color green. So, these are a welcome site for the color alone.
I also (finally) noticed something about how he treats his character designs.
The bugs here only have arms and legs. They are more human-like as a result of that choice. Look at them dancing, look at them doing anything. That grasshopper on Page 20 doesn’t have extra arms to hang to side or to be doing something else. He is just playing fiddle and he is posed more like a human rather than as how a anatomically “accurate bug” might play a violin.
There are some illustrators who would draw those characters, those critters using the appropriate joints for arms, wrists and legs. But, these characters all have appendages which work like human ones do.
Also, the scale at which they are depicted reminds me much of how Richard Scarry would render his cartoon animals. They are shown small. Baumgsarten seems to never do a tight staging where characters fill up a page. They are mostly shown using staging that is a slight downshot, and obviously, includes much of the environment about them. That obviously works for several purposes.
It took a while to actually pinpoint those things. But, I guess I’ve been slow on those days you’ve posted previous work of his.
As it goes, I totally dig the way he approaches these ideas. I was doing work on a production where I went back and forth with a producer on designing the characters with 2/2 arms/legs and 4/2 arms/legs. They wanted four arms, even if they served no function for the animation. I think that type of character setup pushes/pulls a bug character in a wrong direction; it also makes the characters less appealing. So, to me (as if it matters much) what Baumgarten did is pretty smart.
on 11 Sep 2012 at 3:17 pm 3.The Gee said …
ah geez loo-weez!
“I’m a sucker for the color green. So, these are a welcome site for the color alone.â€
The work is a welcome sight for the color scheme alone.
(sigh. i hate it when i mis-spell that word.)
on 28 Feb 2014 at 5:23 pm 4.Mary Ann said …
Wonderful! Found you through pinterest, and I’m glad I did. The detail and concepts are charming indeed.
on 07 Apr 2021 at 5:01 pm 5.Ms. Max said …
Michael and Bill, thank you a million times over for sharing and posting (in such generous hi-res, too) “Das Hochzeitsfest im Wiesengrund†with all of us.
We are indebted to you both for your generosity and time.
Thank you!!!!
on 22 Jul 2024 at 10:19 pm 6.Diana said …
Hi there Michael –
I was searching for this book by Fritz Baumgarten because seeing one image from this book tweaked a childhood memory for me. It is the image of the ladybug wedding. But here’s the thing – the page you show of the ladybug wedding (and the art for all the other pages you show) is more what I’d call “illustrative” with black outlines and colored in, where the art from the page I saw looks much older and is of a more vintage style – maybe almost photographic, but not really. Sorry, but I’m only an amateur watercolorist, so don’t know all the correct art terms. I’d just love to learn though, why there is a difference in these two styles of art for the same book and am hoping you can shed some light. I just ordered a copy of the German version of this book and will keep looking for an English version. Do you think it was redrawn for the English printing? If you email me, I can share a copy of the other image for the ladybug wedding page. A curiosity to be sure! Thanks!