Shaun Tan's The Lost Thing: From Book To Film

Recently I had the pleasure of seeing the remarkable exhibition Shaun Tan's The Lost Thing: From Book to Film. This exhibition was commissioned by ACMI in Melbourne several years ago and is currently about half way through its national tour. I caught up with it at the Maitland Regional Art Gallery in April.

Walking into the exhibition felt a bit like walking into the book. 

There were lots of cool video stations to help explain the transition from book to film. Fun to have old phone handsets in use again. 

Clearly I have no idea how books, or films are made. The attention to detail throughout was astonishing. Shaun made a library of hand painted textures for the surface of every object, set and character in the film. Most were paint on paper, but he also used cloth and collage. The images were then scanned into computers and wrapped around 3D wireframe models! The boys skin texture was inspired by painted wooden puppets. 

This is a first sketch for the Utopia of the film. The images for the book are portrait, whereas the film frame is landscape, and so lots of images had to be reworked to fit the different orientation. 

Learning about the sound effects was interesting too. Here they are making the rattling noise of the trams. 

Even the way that the characters moved and walked was thought out in meticulous detail. 

Creature movement notes

I learnt about some of Shaun's work on the book too. About the now iconic cover.

"There are a few artists who visually influenced the world of the book... painters who dealt with the urban environment as potentially quite a desolate place. Edward Hopper is very good at portraying that kind of universe; Jeffrey Smart, an Australian painter who captures disquiet in the urban landscape; John Brack of course with his paintings of wooden, stiff figures in a flat, almost oxygen-less world of buildings and rectilinear shapes. That group of artists was a touchstone for me in initially comps up with the idea of the world of The Lost Thing." Shaun Tan

Ah, it's so obvious now! I've read The Lost Thing a few times over the years, I think it's definitely time for a reread. My review on The Lost Thing is my post popular post by far, and has been for 5 years. Another reason that The Lost Thing a sentimental favourite for me I guess. 

Each page of the book has a border which I now know is a collage made of Shaun's father's old engineering textbooks. He made collage tests to see if the paper would buckle or warp. I love learning this sort of stuff. I wish the books could include these sort of details. An extraordinary level of thought goes into Shaun's work, at all stages, and it really shows in the end product. Or perhaps it's all this hard work that makes it look, not easy, but seamless. 

I've only just recently learnt that illustrators create a colour palette for the colours that they will use in a book. I saw this in a fabulous Freya Blackwood exhibition that I haven't told you about yet. I presume that they use these to keep track of the colours that they use and so the book has a cohesive theme. I guess they add colours along the way, and use it as a reference to colours they've already used. 

There was a fun room of sculptures. Some were things that looked like they belonged in The Lost Thing world, others made me think of Shaun's latest book, The Singing Bones, and the exhibition did refer to "another project" which I presume was The Singing Bones.

Father and Child

Passion and Reason

I just don't know how you think of doing this with an old lamp head. 

Scribbler

Naturally there was a room at the end that was playing the movie on loop, but I ran out of time to be able to watch it. Thankfully we can all watch it on youtube.

I was a bit overstimulated by the end, there was so much to see, so much to take in. Glad I didn't miss Fetch Boy in the gallery grounds though.

Fetch Boy 2010
Gillie and Marc Schattner

Want more?
ACMI have made an exceptionally detailed teacher resource for the exhibition.
There are also many fascinating ACMI video interviews of Shaun Tan. 
A great SMH article about the exhibition. 
My 2011 review of The Lost Thing

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ANZAC Illustrated

When I was in Newcastle recently I made sure I had time to get along to see a special exhibition, Anzac Illustrated, showcasing the work of Australian illustrators and their work on books about war and conflict for children.

Of course April 25 2015 marks the 100th anniversary of Gallipoli and the start of the ANZAC legend. There have been many new books to mark the occasion. Which is good but at times it seems that there are too many to keep up with.

ANZAC Illustrated included many of my favourite illustrators work.

This exhibition celebrates quite unique approaches to creating illustrated books for children on these themes. Tales are told from many perspectives by well-known voices. Illustration mediums and styles are varied and inspiring. There are all sorts of books including picture books for young and old, a graphic novel and illustrated fiction. 

Several illustrators were featured. Greg Holfeld's amazing work on An Anzac Tale (see my review) was featured as the artwork for the exhibition posters. It is particularly striking. And there was a large digital print of the cover artwork as you walked in.

I really love his use of kangaroos as soldiers. It's so visually strong. This interesting choice was explained in the exhibition. 

Click on the photo to enlarge for easier reading. 

I always love seeing glimpses of work in progress. It's so fascinating for a non-artist who has no idea of the process.

There was a large display about several of Mark Wilson's books. I've read a few of his books, and really love his work. 

There were fascinating displays of the research he does for his illustrations.

I just had to search out Digger
(see my review)

Mark Wilson illustrated Jackie French's A Day to Remember (see my review). It was great to see how he did the cover artwork. 

There was only one work from Shaun Tan, an image from his extraordinary book Memorial, which I should probably reread. 

Check out my list of war books for children covering WWI, WWII and other conflicts.

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Rules of Summer

Rules of Summer was actually one of the very first books that I read that was later nominated for the CBCA Books of the Year 2014. I saw this book in the shops before I first saw any reviews anywhere, and was of course immediately drawn to it, as I am drawn to any other Shaun Tan work. For a while then it was everywhere. Jennifer Byrne on Tuesday Book Club Dec 2013 edition proclaimed it "surreal for adults, delightful for children, a joy of a thing". Stephen Romei featured it in The Australian's Hot Reads for Summer 2013. 

His new one, the beautiful, haunting picture book Rules of Summer, which says so much with so few words, is one of the standout books of the year, full stop.

I bought it. I read it. A few times. And I don't think I quite understood it. I didn't know what to say, and so was reluctant to blog about it. I didn't immediately love it, and I've loved and admired Shaun Tan for some time. I wanted to like it, and I didn't want to be disappointed with a Shaun Tan book. So I let this post slip away unwritten, and left Rules of Summer on the shelf. I blogged about every other book shortlisted for the CBCA Picture Book of the Year 2014. And then last month Rules of Summer won Picture Book of the Year. Clearly it was time to look at this  book again.

And I still didn't understand it! I reread it several times once more. I needed to find the Teachers Guide and Shaun Tan explaining the book to me on youtube for help.

In the video Shaun tells us that he likes mysterious imagery, and that in Rules of Summer we're left with "a bit of a puzzle to what is exactly happening". He likes it to be not entirely clear as to what is going on and he leaves it to the readers imagination to construct what is going on. Perhaps this is where I'm failing? Rules of Summer is open to being read in all sorts of ways, that it does not have a linear or kinetic structure.

This is the sort of book you could open on any page and spend five minutes or an hour pondering the image. Close the book, and that would be sufficient experience. 

I love hearing about his creative process in the video. He doodles and draws, without worrying about meaning or content, and later spools out random ideas, like free association or daydreaming. And I come to realise why I'm not a creative person- my mind just doesn't work like that. I still admire Shaun Tan enormously and will avidly seek out his next book, it's just that Rules of Summer didn't strike a chord with me as clearly it did for many other readers.

The Oopsatoreum

The Oopsatoreum is perhaps Shaun Tan's quirkiest book yet. Which is saying something. Shaun Tan is something special. So creative. Each book is quite different. And this one is more different than any other I've read so far. It seems I've only managed to blog about two before. The Lost Thing and The Arrival. But I have read quite a few more.

I'd read the reviews for The Oopsatoreum eagerly a few months ago, as it's always exciting to find a new Shaun Tan on the shelves. In the intervening months I'd forgotten the premise of this book, and so initially found it quite perplexing. It's a rather unusual concept. The Powerhouse Museum in Sydney approached Shaun to make up stuff about some of the objects in their collections. The Oopsatoreum is the result of this collaboration.

Shaun Tan has imagined the world of radical Australian inventor Henry A. Mintox from Burrumbuttock, NSW.

What does it mean to be truly original? Should creativity be measured only by success? Or is it the thought that counts… no matter how impractical?

Thus a hand from a resuscitation mannequin becomes a handshake gauge.

And two ceramic medical jars become a literacy test.

There is a story and a postcard written for every object. They're hysterical.

You can see more of a preview from the clever designers at
Symple Creative

The Oopsatoreum is more delightful, more intriguing, more beguiling each and every time you pick it up. And more funny. I think this is the most overtly humorous work that we've seen from Shaun Tan. The Powerhouse is now showing an exhibition of The Oopsatoreum. It looks fantastic. I can feel a field trip coming on.

2011 A Year in Books

I wasn't planning on writing a wrap up post, but after having read a few other lists, it got me to thinking. What were the best books I'd read this year? It's interesting to look back and wonder. These are the dozen titles that I gave 5 stars to on Goodreads this year, generally gushed about here, and remembered fondly.

Michael Leunig has still got it

Jackie French Nanberry

Martine Murray The Slightly True Story of Cedar B Hartley

Brian Selznick The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Jackie French Flood 

Shaun Tan The Lost Thing (coincidentally my most popular post by a mile)

John Baxter Immoveable Feast A Paris Christmas (a book I loved so much I did two blog posts about it #1 and #2)

Fred Gipson Old Yeller

Lonely Planet Paris Not for Parents

All the 13 things children should know series that I've read so far.

I started listening to audio books in the car this year when my commute time tripled (from 4 minutes to 15!), I've been listening to nonfiction, and a few of these really won over my affections.

Tim Flannery Country

Dawn French Dear Fatty

Jim Leavesley Mere Mortals

I'm pretty pleased with myself that a full 50% of these books are Australian! Also pretty pleased with the diversity. Fiction. Nonfiction. YA. Picture books. Adult books. Interesting to note that no adult fiction made my list. I hope to remedy that next year. The TBR always looms large.

I really enjoyed participating in the Foodies Reading Challenge and Wondrous Word Wednesdays memes this year. I've learnt so much from these activites, and made new online friends. I look forward to continuing both next year.

Another 5 star discovery this year:

Mango Pancakes!

Yum cha dessert used to be easy. Mango Pudding. No decision. Now I discover Mango Pancakes! Pudding? Pancakes? Such a dilemma!

The Arrival

Reading every Shaun Tan book is such a wonderful experience. Earlier this year I read and loved The Lost Thing, and most recently I've read The Arrival. For some reason, I was a bit reluctant to read this one. I think perhaps it was the drab sepia colouring of the cover. I'd never even thumbed through The Arrival in the library or a bookshop. Reader, I shouldn't have doubted him.

In The Arrival Shaun Tan takes on the immigrant experience. In a story at once familiar, and yet foreign, a man prepares to leave his wife and daughter. He is clearly leaving his homeland, overrun by a menace that feels second world war Europe, but is represented with shadowy dragon tails.

He leaves his family and travels alone to a new land, to make his fortune, to better his family. He journeys by ship to a new country, a surreal kind of New York harbour.

Once again Tan pays homage to well known images. This one was immediately familiar

but I couldn't recall the name until the Artist's Note at the back named Tom Roberts, Going South, 1886, held at the National Gallery of Victoria.

Once again Shaun Tan has blurred the line between picture book (yet this isn't for toddlers), and graphic novel. Wordless and told in a series of nuanced and highly detailed vignettes, the effect is especially moving. The cover, and styling actually are setting up The Arrival as an old, much loved family photo album.

As with any Shaun Tan book there is just so much detail in each and every drawing that rewards your attention, and will reward multiple re-readings.

If you find yourself with a free 20 minutes one day you could do much worse than browse this wonderful book. In the meanwhile, here is a lovely excerpt to give more of a taste.

Read what I thought of The Lost Thing.