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Brian Froud

For the Canadian comedian, see Brian Froud (actor).

Brian Froud (born 1947)[1] is an English fantasy illustrator and conceptual designer. He is most widely known for his 1978 book Faeries with Alan Lee, and as the conceptual designer of the Jim Henson films The Dark Crystal (1982) and Labyrinth (1986).[8][9] According to Wired, Froud is "one of the most pre-emiminent visualizers of the world of faerie and folktale".[10]

Brian Froud
Froud at the 2012 New York Comic Con
Born1947 (age 76–77)[1]
Winchester, Hampshire, England[2]
EducationMaidstone College of Art
Known forIllustration, painting, and conceptual design.
Spouse
​
(m. 1980)​
ChildrenToby Froud
Awards

Most recently, Froud developed the 2019 streaming television series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.

Early life

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Froud was born in Winchester, England in 1947.[2] An only child, he grew up in rural Hampshire[11] before moving to Kent.[12] In 1967 he enrolled as a painter at Maidstone College of Art, where he graduated with a first class honors diploma in Graphic Design in 1971.[13]

Career

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After graduating, Froud spent five years working as a commercial illustrator in Soho, London before moving to Chagford, Devon in 1975.[13][14] Between 1972 and 1976, he illustrated four books by children's author Margaret Mahy[15] and Are All the Giants Dead? by Mary Norton.[16] In 1976, Froud was featured in Once Upon a Time: Some Contemporary Illustrators of Fantasy, a survey of modern British illustrators.[17] In 1977, an anthology of his artwork, The Land of Froud, was published.[18]

In collaboration with his friend and fellow artist Alan Lee, Froud created the 1978 book Faeries, an illustrated compendium of faerie folklore.[14] Faeries reached number four on the New York Times Best Sellers list,[19][20] and by 2003 had sold over five million copies.[21]

Froud's artwork in Once Upon a Time and The Land of Froud brought him to the attention of Jim Henson, who sought out Froud to collaborate on his all-puppetry film The Dark Crystal.[22][23] Froud served as the conceptual designer of The Dark Crystal, released in 1982. The same year, his concept art for the film was published in the companion book The World of the Dark Crystal.[24] Froud was also the conceptual designer for Henson's next feature film, Labyrinth, released in 1986,[25] as well as for the pilot episode of Henson's television series The Storyteller, first aired in 1987.[26] Following his collaborations with Henson, Froud's filmography continued; as a designer for the 1989 Japanese animated film Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland;[27] as a visual consultant on the 2000 American animated film The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus[13] and P. J. Hogan’s 2003 live-action film Peter Pan;[28] and as a concept artist on the 2016 Disney film Pete's Dragon.[29] Froud returned to working with the Jim Henson Company as the primary conceptual designer of the 2019 Netflix series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, a prequel to The Dark Crystal.[30][31]

In the late 1980s, Froud formed an artistic-literary partnership with Terry Jones, who was a screenwriter on Labyrinth. Together they produced The Goblins of Labyrinth (1986), a companion book containing Froud's concept art for the film,[32][33] and subsequently a number of non-Labyrinth-related books about fairies and goblins. Their Lady Cottington series parodied the Cottingley Fairies phenomenon.[1] For his artwork in the first book of the series, Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book (1994), Froud won the Hugo Award for Best Original Artwork[3] and the Chesley Award for Best Interior Illustration.[4]

In 1991, Froud created over 50 paintings and drawings for his Faerielands series, a collaborative project in which he invited four fantasy authors — Charles de Lint, Patricia A. McKillip, Terri Windling and Midori Snyder — to choose their favourite of his pieces and write stories to go with them, based on the premise that "Faerie, inextricably bound as it is to nature and natural forces, is gravely threatened by the ecological crises that human beings have brought to our world”.[34][35] The resulting novels were to be published by Bantam Books.[36] However, only de Lint's The Wild Wood and McKillip's Something Rich and Strange were published in 1994 under the banner "Brian Froud's Faerielands" before the project was cancelled.[37][38]

His artwork has been exhibited in the United Kingdom and the United States.[2] By 2003, Froud had sold over eight million large-format books of his paintings of fairies.[21]

Personal life

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Froud is married to Wendy Froud (née Midener), a puppet-maker and sculptor whom he met at Jim Henson Studios in 1978 while working on The Dark Crystal.[13] The couple married on 31 May 1980, in Chagford.[39][40] Their son Toby (born 1984) portrayed the infant of the same name in Labyrinth at the age of one,[41] and later became a puppeteer and creature fabricator,[42] working alongside his parents on The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance as design supervisor.[43] Through his son, Froud has one grandson.[44]

Artistic style and influences

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Froud's artwork frequently draws upon fairy tales and European folklore. His paintings of fairies are known for recontexualising Victorian and Edwardian-era beliefs about fairies[1][45] and were part of a revival of fairy painting seen during the late 20th century.[46][47]

Among Froud's major influences are the 19th and early 20th-century illustrators Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac,[11][24] and Richard Dadd.[48] Froud cites the early influence of Rackham, "in particular, [Rackham's] drawings of trees that had faces", as sparking his interest in illustrating fairy tales, and describes having had a love of nature from childhood that has informed his style.[49] He is frequently inspired by the landscape of Dartmoor.[30] Other influences Froud cites include the Robinson brothers (Thomas, Charles and William),[48] the Pre-Raphaelites, William Morris and Northern European art from the 1500s and 1600s.[49] He has stated that he was fascinated by Greek, Druid, Celtic and German 15th-century history and mythology.[48] Froud's work has also been influenced by Arthurian legend, "com[ing] from Glastonbury as a sacred centre".[50] Jeremiah Horrigan of the Poughkeepsie Journal wrote that Froud's style "echoes not only the great 19th century illustrators he reveres, but also harbors a wealth of elements ranging from Medieval to ancient Celtic and Nordic folk art."[11]

Works

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Illustration works

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  • Romeo and Juliet (1971)
  • The Man Whose Mother Was a Pirate (1972)
  • A Midsummer Night's Dream (1972)
  • Ultra-violet catastrophe!, or The unexpected walk with Great-Uncle Magnus Pringle (1975)
  • Are All the Giants Dead? (1975)
  • The Wind Between the Stars (1976)
  • The Land of Froud (1977)
  • Master Snickup's Cloak (1978)
  • Faeries (1978) — With Alan Lee
  • The World of the Dark Crystal (1982)
  • Goblins: Pop-up Book (1983)
  • The Goblins of Labyrinth (1986) (reissued in abridged form as The Goblin Companion: A Field Guide to Goblins (1986)
  • The Dreaming Place (1990)
  • Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book (1994)
  • Quentin Cottington's Journal of Faery Research: Strange Stains and Mysterious Smells (1996)
  • Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Journal (1998)
  • Good Faeries/Bad Faeries (1998)
  • The Faeries' Oracle (2000)
  • Lady Cottington’s Fairy Album (2002)
  • The Runes of Elfland (2003)
  • Goblins! (2004)
  • The Secret Sketchbooks of Brian Froud (2005)
  • Chelsea Morning (2005) - Based on the song by Joni Mitchell
  • Brian Froud's World of Faerie (2007)
  • Heart of Faerie Oracle (2010)
  • How to See Faeries (2011) — With John Matthews
  • Trolls (2012) — With Wendy Froud
  • Faeries' Tales (2014)

Brian Froud's Faerielands series

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Conceptual works

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Awards and nominations

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Illustration

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In 1979, Froud was nominated for the British Fantasy Award for Best Artwork for Plate 12 of his 1977 book, The Land of Froud.[51] For his 1978 book with Alan Lee, Faeries, Froud won second place in the 1979 Locus Award for Best Art Book[52] (Froud has been a runner up four times through to 2015).[53] Faeries was also nominated for the 1979 Balrog Award for Best Professional Publication.[54] The same year, Froud was also runner up for the Locus Award for Best Artist (he has been a runner up four times through to 1999).[53]

Four years later, Froud was a nominee at the 1983 Hugo Awards in the category of Best Non-Fiction Book for The World of the Dark Crystal, for which Froud was the illustrator in a partnership with writer J. J. Llewellyn.[55] The World of the Dark Crystal won fifth place in the 1983 Locus Award for Best Nonfiction/Reference Book.[56] The same year, Froud was also nominated for the Balrog Award for Best Artist.[57]

Froud was honoured by the World Fantasy Convention with a nomination for the World Fantasy Award for Best Artist in 1991, and again four years later.[58]

In 1995, Froud won the Hugo Award for Best Original Artwork for his illustrations in Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book, a collaboration with writer Terry Jones.[3] The book also won the Chesley Award for Best Interior Illustration, and Froud was also nominated that year for the Chesley Award for Artistic Achievement.[4] For The Wise Woman, Froud won a certificate in the 1995 Spectrum Award for Best Book.[59]

For his illustrations in Terry Windling's novel, The Wood Wife, Froud was nominated for the BSFA Award for Best Artwork in 1998.[60] The following year, for his artwork in Good Faeries/Bad Faeries, another collaboration with Windling, Froud won his second Chesley Award for Best Interior Illustration[5] (he has been a finalist six times through to 2008).[53]

In 2001, Froud, along with his wife, was awarded the Inkpot Award.[6] Froud received a lifetime achievement award from the New York Society of Illustrators Museum in 2011.[61]

Film

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Year Award Category Work(s) Result
1987 BAFTA Film Award Best Special Visual Effects Labyrinth – with Roy Field, George Gibbs and Tony Dunsterville Nominated[62]
1987 Saturn Award Best Costume Design Labyrinth – with Ellis Flyte Nominated[63]
2020 Concept Art Award Lifetime Achievement The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth Won[7]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Alred, B. Grantham (2008). "Froud, Brian (1947-)". In Haase, Donald (ed.). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales. Vol. One: A-F (Illustrated ed.). Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 393. ISBN 978-0-313-33442-9.
  2. ^ a b c "Brian Froud". Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors. Gale. 22 September 2004. Gale H1000154699
  3. ^ a b c "1995 Hugo Awards". World Science Fiction Society. Archived from the original on 7 May 2011. Retrieved 19 April 2010.
  4. ^ a b c "1995 Chesley Awards". Locus Magazine. Archived from the original on 6 April 2014. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
  5. ^ a b "1999 Chesley Awards". Locus Magazine. Archived from the original on 6 April 2014. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
  6. ^ a b Inkpot Award
  7. ^ a b "2020 Concept Art Awards Presented by Lightbox Expo". Concept Art Association. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  8. ^ Heffley, Lynne (22 October 1998). "A Very Full 'Hollow'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 13 March 2020. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  9. ^ "Brian & Wendy Froud". Wall Street International. 29 September 2014. Archived from the original on 13 March 2020. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  10. ^ Gilsdorf, Ethan (12 October 2012). "Fantasy Legends Brian and Wendy Froud at New York Comic Con This Weekend: The Q&A". Wired. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  11. ^ a b c Horrigan, Jeremiah (31 December 1982). "In Froud's world, mountains talk, rivers sing". Poughkeepsie Journal. Poughkeepsie, New York. p. 22. Archived from the original on 15 August 2020. Retrieved 15 August 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ Barder, Ollie (27 January 2019). "'Brian Froud's World of Faerie' Book Review: A Wonderful Collection Of Fascinating Fantasy Art". Forbes. Archived from the original on 24 December 2019. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
  13. ^ a b c d "Brian Froud". DarkCrystal.com. The Jim Henson Company. Archived from the original on 26 August 2019. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  14. ^ a b Hauptfuhrer, Fred (19 March 1979). "For Artists Alan Lee & Brian Froud, Life Is a Faerie Tale Come True". People. Vol. 11, no. 11. Archived from the original on 9 July 2019. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  15. ^ "Margaret Mahy". Storylines.org.nz. Auckland, New Zealand: Storylines Childrens Literature Charitable Trust. n.d. Archived from the original on 28 May 2012. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  16. ^ Leonard, Tohn (16 November 1975). "Are All the Giants Dead?". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  17. ^ Street, Douglas (1979). "Review of Once Upon A Time: Some Contemporary Illustrators of Fantasy, and: Fantasy: The Golden Age of Fantastic Illustration". Children's Literature Association Quarterly. 4 (3): 17. doi:10.1353/chq.0.1637. S2CID 143538285. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  18. ^ Brown, Doris, E. (20 November 1977). "Fantasy illustrator subject of art book". The Central New Jersey Home News. New Brunswick, New Jersey. p. C11. Archived from the original on 18 August 2020. Retrieved 18 August 2020 – via Newspapers.com.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  19. ^ "Best Sellers". The New York Times. 19 November 1978. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  20. ^ Heritage Capital Corporation (2005). Heritage Comics Auctions #815 Pini Collection Catalog. Ivy Press. p. 21. ISBN 978-1-932899-50-4.
  21. ^ a b Kiefer, Michael (6 May 2003). "Magical tide washes Faeryland onto red rocks of Sedona". Arizona Republic. Phoenix, Arizona. p. E2. Archived from the original on 21 August 2020. Retrieved 21 August 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ^ Henson, Jim (16–24 January 1978). "1/16-24/1978 – 'Brian Froud comes to NY to live and work – have 1st series of meetings on Froud film.'". Jim Henson's Red Book. Archived from the original on 16 August 2014. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  23. ^ Falk, Karen (2012). Imagination Illustrated: The Jim Henson Journal. Chronicle Books. p. 108. ISBN 978-1-4521-2462-9.
  24. ^ a b Jones, Alan (April–May 1983). Clarke, Frederick S. (ed.). "The Dark Crystal". Cinefantastique. Vol. 13, no. 4. p. 46.
  25. ^ Jones, Alan (July 1986). Clarke, Frederick S. (ed.). "Labyrinth". Cinefantastique. Vol. 16, no. 3. pp. 7, 57.
  26. ^ a b Jones, Alan (December 1987). Clarke, Frederick S. (ed.). "The Storyteller". Cinefantastique. Vol. 18, no. 1. pp. 4–5.
  27. ^ Clements, Johnathan; McCarthy, Helen (2015). The Anime Encyclopedia, 3rd Revised Edition: A Century of Japanese Animation. Stone Bridge Press. p. 1790. ISBN 978-1-61172-909-2.
  28. ^ "Peter Pan". Sight and Sound. Vol. 14, no. 3. British Film Institute. March 2004. pp. 56–57.
  29. ^ "Pete's Dragon (2016)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 14 November 2017. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  30. ^ a b Paul Kobrak, Clem Hitchcock (Producers) (13 August 2019). Creature and costume designers, The Frouds. BBC Sounds. In the Studio (Podcast series). BBC World Service. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  31. ^ Robinson, Abby (8 August 2019). "Here's why Netflix's Dark Crystal was made into a prequel". Digital Spy. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  32. ^ Library Media Connection: LMC., Volumes 4-6. Linworth Pub. 1986. p. 39.
  33. ^ McCall, Douglas (2013). Monty Python: A Chronology, 1969-2012 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Company. p. 115. ISBN 978-0-7864-7811-8.
  34. ^ Mythprint, Volumes 31-32. Mythopoeic Society. 1994. p. 32.
  35. ^ Herald, Diana Tixier (1999). Fluent in Fantasy: A Guide to Reading Interests. Libraries Unlimited. p. 147. ISBN 978-1-56308-655-7.
  36. ^ Fantasy & Science Fiction, Volume 88, Issues 524-529. Mercury Press. 1994. p. 36.
  37. ^ The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Volume 105. Fantasy House. 2003. pp. 27–28.
  38. ^ Bleiber, Richard (2003). Supernatural Fiction Writers: Peter Ackroyd to Graham Joyce. Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 274. ISBN 978-0-684-31251-4.
  39. ^ Henson, Jim (31 May 1980). "5/31/1980 – 'Wendy marries Brian Froud in Chagford.'". Jim Henson's Red Book. Archived from the original on 22 April 2016. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  40. ^ "The Dark Crystal - The Making Of..." DarkCrystal.com. The Jim Henson Company. Archived from the original on 4 September 2019. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  41. ^ "Family displays art at McCune". Petoskey News-Review. Petoskey, Michigan. 5 December 1989. p. 6. Archived from the original on 14 August 2020. Retrieved 14 August 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  42. ^ Eames, Tom (20 July 2020). "Where is Toby Froud aka the baby from Labyrinth now?". Smooth Radio. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  43. ^ Pirnia, Garin (9 September 2019). "Dark Crystal: The Age of Resistance's Design Supervisor Was Also the Baby in Labyrinth". Mental Floss. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  44. ^ "Obituary for Margaret Peggy Midener". Penzien Funeral Homes, Inc. Archived from the original on 4 June 2019. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  45. ^ Ashwood, Brigid (10 April 2012). "Book Review: Trolls by Brian and Wendy Froud". Wired. Archived from the original on 22 December 2016. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  46. ^ Phillpotts, Beatrice (1999). The Faeryland Companion. New York: Barnes & Noble Books. p. 92. ISBN 978-0-7607-1890-2.
  47. ^ Stableford, Brian (2009) [First published 2005]. The A to Z of Fantasy Literature. Historical Dictionaries. Scarecrow Press. p. 213. ISBN 978-0-8108-6345-3.
  48. ^ a b c "Bio of Brian, Wendy & Toby Froud". Animazing Gallery. SoHo, New York. 2011. Archived from the original on 15 March 2012. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  49. ^ a b Barder, Ollie (13 September 2019). "Brian Froud On 'The Dark Crystal', 'Labyrinth' And His Love Of Nature". Forbes. Archived from the original on 25 June 2020. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  50. ^ Wheeler, Gem (28 August 2019). "The Dark Crystal: Age Of Resistance's designer on 'a purer form of puppetry'". Den of Geek. Archived from the original on 16 August 2020. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  51. ^ "British Fantasy Awards 1979". Science Fiction Awards Database. Locus Science Fiction Foundation. Archived from the original on 27 October 2019. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
  52. ^ "Locus Awards 1979". Science Fiction Awards Database. Locus Science Fiction Foundation. Archived from the original on 20 August 2019. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  53. ^ a b c "Brian Froud". Science Fiction Awards Database. Locus Science Fiction Foundation. Archived from the original on 3 August 2019. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  54. ^ "Balrog Awards 1979". Science Fiction Awards Database. Locus Science Fiction Foundation. Archived from the original on 4 August 2019. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
  55. ^ "1983 Hugo Awards". World Science Fiction Society. 26 July 2007. Retrieved 6 December 2019.
  56. ^ "Locus Awards 1983". Science Fiction Awards Database. Locus Science Fiction Foundation. Archived from the original on 20 August 2019. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
  57. ^ "Balrog Awards 1983". Science Fiction Awards Database. Locus Science Fiction Foundation. Archived from the original on 4 August 2019. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
  58. ^ "Nominees". worldfantasy.org. World Fantasy Convention. Archived from the original on 8 December 2019. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
  59. ^ "Spectrum Awards 1995". Science Fiction Awards Database. Locus Science Fiction Foundation. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 25 December 2019.
  60. ^ "British SF Association Awards 1998". Science Fiction Awards Database. Locus Science Fiction Foundation. Archived from the original on 28 April 2019. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
  61. ^ Sierra, Gabrielle (27 September 2011). "Animazing Gallery of SoHo To Exhibit THE FROUDS: VISIONS FOR FILM & FAERIE". Broadway World. Archived from the original on 4 November 2011. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  62. ^ "Film in 1987". British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  63. ^ "1987 Saturn Awards". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
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