Eric Carle

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Eric Carle
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The Art of Eric Carle
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Eric Carle

• Childrens book author and illustrator
• Loved to draw from an early age
• Was moved from the U.S. to Germany at age 6 and
  then returned to U.S. at age 23 to follow his
  dream of becoming an artist

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Eric Carle and Collage

• During his last year at the Akademie, Eric Carle
  was commissioned to deign posters for the U.S.
  Information Center
• He used bold shapes and colors- influence from
  Bauhaus
• Shortly thereafter, he graduated and was hired by
  Leo Lionni as a commercial artist
• One of the pieces he created was a lobster ad.
• Do you see similarities between Matisses work
  and Carles?

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Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

• Written by Bill Martin Jr.
• Creating the illustrations inspired Carle to
  create more picture books.

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1,2,3 to the Zoo

• This was his first book
• He created a book without words as he thought he
  was not very strong at grammar or spelling

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1,2,3, to the Zoo

• Carle uses bright, colorful animals surrounded by
  a lot of white space to introduce the concept of
  counting
• Many of his books use small creatures- this is a
  way of honoring his father who taught him to
  appreciate nature and life cycles of creatures

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The Collage Process

• Carle begins with painting plain white tissue
  paper with different colored acrylic paint
• He uses the painted tissue to cut out shapes for
  his drawings that he then glues onto illustration
  board

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The Very Hungry Caterpillar
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Dream Snow

• Eric Carles early work primarily consisted
  pictures on all white backgrounds
• He then began painting the sky or ground as
  background
• In one of his latest books, Dream Snow, he
  painted the entire background

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My Apron

• In My Apron, Carle changes his style by adding
  heavy, black outlines to all the figures.
• The book is a tribute to modern French painter,
  Fernand Leger.
• Do you think the black outline makes the pictures
  look stronger?

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Museum of Picture Art Mural

• In 2002, Carles dream came true when the Eric
  Carle Museum of Picture Art opened in
  Massachusetts
• Carle painted four murals in the entry hall of
  the museum
• Carle celebrated his 80th birthday in June 2009
  and the 40th birthday of The Very Hungry
  Caterpillar