If we’re discussing British
children’s illustrators of the 20th century, we can’t really ignore
Peggy Fortnum. Peggy Fortnum, who passed away in 2016, illustrated over 50
books, but she’s best known as the original illustrator of Michael Bond’s
charming Paddington Bear books. The idea of anyone else having illustrated
Paddington is about as outlandish as anyone other than E.H. Shepard having
illustrated Winnie the Pooh.
Copying this picture was an
interesting and surprisingly challenging experience. It looks simple, yet I
found that every one of her lines was precisely placed, and imprecision on my
part rendered the sketch far less effective than the original.
