Monday 19 September 2016

Raymond Sheppard bird sketches (Part 1)


A conversation on Twitter led to me promising to publish a selection of Raymond Sheppard's sketches of birds. These are all generously provided by Christine Sheppard, daughter of the artist. Many will be quick photos taken as a reference but beggars (namely me!) can't be choosers. If these help elevate Sheppard's popularity, I'm happy.

The filenames of each of these pictures (if you click on them and download them) are Christine's filing system so I have left them as they are to help us know which we are talking about. My labels appear below each picture here.

I'd be very grateful to any bird experts as to what the species are where I don't know or have made a mistake!

Duck in flight

Mallards in flight

Duck in flight

Pelican sketch
 The above picture is the sort of sketch that Sheppard drew in his teaching books "How to draw birds" and "More birds to draw"  It shows the structure and shape and weight


Pelican

Turnstone?

Turnstone?

Turnstone?

Finches

Finches
 Interesting in the above picture how Sheppard has indicated the bird's feet movement

Finch
 The following couple of sketches are named, reasonably, by Christine as "crested bird". I'd be thrilled if anyone wants to have a guess so I can go hunting a bit more intelligently than I have to date. The bird has a crest, 'bunched' plumage and red legs, but what's it called?

"Crested bird"

"Crested bird"

Duck with chicks


Sanderling?

Egyptian plover

Vultures
 Sheppard has written "Young occipotal" on the left hand of the two vultures shown here, referring to the skull size and shape.
Blackbird
Part Two to follow soon

Sunday 18 September 2016

Raymond Sheppard prepatory sketches

Previously I wrote about Raymond Sheppard and his art for Autocar. I was browsing images that Christine Sheppard kindly gave me and spotted some studies Sheppard later used for covers. I thought it might be fun to show them here for those who missed the previous article.

Autocar 12 Dec 1952

Sketch by Raymond Sheppard



The Motor 24 Dec 1952
Sketches by Raymond Sheppard



Friday 9 September 2016

Raymond Sheppard and Young Elizabethan magazine (Part Two)

Raymond Sheppard, to my knowledge provided various illustrations in the Young Elizabethan magazine ("for boys and girls") during 1954 to 1958. I've tried to find out a bit about the authors, but really it's the pictures by Sheppard that got me investigating this children's magazine.

The Elephant Hunters by John Hynam Young Elizabethan November 1954

Young Elizabethan November 1954 p6
Born 10 June 1915 in Alwalton, Huntingdonshire, ‘John Kippax’ was actually the pen name used by John Charles Hynam. His literary collaborator and close personal friend writer-guitarist Dan Morgan recalls that ‘John had a larger-than-life physical and psychic presence. Likeable, eccentric, egocentric, kind, brusque, take your pick from the thesaurus to describe him, he was all of these and more’ (in the postscript to the novel ‘Where No Stars Guide’, published posthumously in 1975). Round-of-face, dark-haired and bespectacled, Kippax qualified as an English master at a grammar school where he was soon writing ‘at least one thousand words a day despite the inroads on his mental health by small boys.’ He claimed ‘voracious reading habits’ and wrote non-genre fiction for children’s literary magazine ‘Young Elizabethan’, and for Putnam’s ‘Pick Of Today’s Short Stories’ (1954) edited by John Pudney, but – as he confided to a ‘New Worlds’ Writer Profile ‘I began to write science fiction almost as soon as I started to read it,’ calling it jokily ‘a disability from which I never expect to completely recover’ (no.58, April 1957). - Taken from the excellent Eight Miles Higher blog by Andrew Darlington
Sadly he died when his car collided with a lorry near Peterborough in July 1974.

Advert for Island of Birds
illustrated by Raymond Sheppard
Shadow of Doubt by Leighton Houghton Young Elizabethan March 1955

Young Elizabethan March 1955 p.29

Young Elizabethan March 1955 p.30
Mark Thres has written an article on a local forum re this author. Apparently he was born in 1910 and has the full name Reginald Leighton Houghton.
  • A Companion to the Prayer Book, London : S.P.C.K., [1939]
  • In the Steps of the Anglo-Saxons, London : Rich & Cowan, [1948]
  • In the steps of the Normans and Plantagenets : a journey round the Brit. Isles in search of the Ch. of the middle ages [S.l.] : Rich & Cowan, 1949.
  • In the steps of St.Joan of Arc. Rich & Cowan, 1951.
  • Haunted Creek ... Illustrated by P. A. Jobson. London ; Glasgow : Blackie & Son, [1954]
  • In the steps of Jesus (1956)
  • The Crusoe Game. London : Lutterworth Press, 1956.
  • The Haunted Stable.London : Lutterworth Press, 1957.
  • Sealed Orders, etc.London ; Glasgow : Blackie & Son, [1957]
  • The Phantom Rider.London : Lutterworth Press, 1958.
  • The Girls Guides' Annual 1959 and 1960, [2 volumes] by Viola Bayley, Leighton Houghton, Anstice Gibbs, et al. London: Thames Publishing Co. 1959-60
  • The Sixer Annual 1960 For All Wolf Cubs  London: Thanes Publishing, 1959
  • Gallows' Tor. London : Lutterworth Press, 1960.
  • Catch me a Peewit London ; Glasgow : Collins, 1961.
  • The Luck of the Ravens ... Illustrated by R. A. Branton. London ; Glasgow : Collins, 1961.
  • Herons' Quest  London ; Glasgow : Collins, 1961.
  • Play up, Barnley!. London ; Glasgow : Collins, 1964.
  • In the footsteps of Jesus. Picture-stamp book. Story by the Reverend Leighton Houghton ... Illustrated by Nat Long. Paulton ; London : Purnell, [1965]
  • Happytime Storybook London: Children's Press, London 1967
  • The Scout's Pathfinder Annual London: Purnell 1967
  • A guide to the British cathedrals. London : J. Baker, 1973.
The Mountain of No Return by David Craigie

Young Elizabethan April 1955. p27
This story is about Nick hardy who meets the "Mountain of No return" and climbs it and ...returns. Interestingly "Craigie" writes about Akoo, Hardy's 'headman'. Looking at the listing below, It appears Dorothy Glover/Dorothy Craigie / David Craigie wrote two books about an 'Akoo'. her collaborations with Graham Greene can be seen here

The Science-Fiction Encyclopedia has an article that states:

Pseudonym used by theatre costume designer, illustrator and writer Dorothy Glover (1901-1971) on her sf books for Young Adults. As Dorothy Craigie, she wrote numerous stories for younger children, from Summersalts Circus (1947) to Nicky and Nigger Join the Circus (1960); also as Dorothy Craigie she illustrated children's books, including Graham Greene's four in the genre, with whom she also lived during the 1940s and with whom wrote Victorian Detective Fiction: A Catalogue of the Collection Made by Graham Greene and Dorothy Glover (1966) as Dorothy Glover.
Steve Holland has already written about this interesting character and listed her works too. She lived from 1908 to 1971

The Briar Patch by R. F. Brown Young Elizabethan July 1955 pp.9 and 10

Young Elizabethan July 1955. p.9
Wrapping his head in his arms he let go. The cold night air seemed to pick him up like a hurricane
Young Elizabethan July 1955. p.10
Howard kept the gun in his pockets and relied on his fists

This story tells of Howard Finton's first job as a detective, carrying a secret microfilm to a Professor. But he has to leap from a moving train to get to the Professor's house in Medhurst, in the Midlands.  The piar soon foil the gangsters who truss them up in a cellar.

Unfortunately I have been unable to find anything about R.F.Brown, the author beyond the fact he also wrote The Night of the Storm in Young Elizabethan April 1956

More Sheppard illustrations in Young Elizabethan soon