Lincoln Agnew Illustrator and contemporary 1950’s Space traveller

I recently came across the beautifully illustrated childrens books by Lincoln Agnew and writer Katie Van Camp, called ” Harry and Horsie “ for which he won the 2009 Society of Illustrators “The Original Art” Founder’s Award as well as the Marion Vannett Ridgway Award.

What caught my eye in particular is the 50’s inspired feel to the books, using styles that I’d played around with myself a little when I was creating my first book “In Space No One Can Hear You Bark ! “. Playing around with dots and shading and creating that retro happy accident when two colours slightly don’t match up when printed and cause a third tone to emerge. It’s all good fun lol.

Lincoln Agnew once tried to build his own robot out of a plastic bucket, a broken microwave, and “technology,” but sadly its abilities were limited to catching fire. Years later, after giving up on world domination, he attended the Alberta College of Art and Design, where he obtained degrees in both illustration and photography.  He is currently rebuilding that robot in the form of his second book ” Cookiebot “.

There’s a great Q & A session from 2009 over on The Casual Optimist site and a more recent one here by Jan Markley, where you can learn a little more about Lincoln.  Heck you can even pick up a classy children’s Tee shirt here too  !

There’s a different side to Lincoln’s work explored on Marlena Agency site, as you can see here.

If you like this you may also like to look through Space Alphabet with illustrations by Peter P Plasencia, more about his artist here.  (thanks again to mister Jenkins for posting).

I think I may have to invest in a copy of Harry and Horsie for myself. This also reminds me of some illustrations I was working on about a year ago about a boy in space, here’s one of the ideas.  Any thoughts readers ?