We're going to start out with Bill Peet, because besides Disney, he is the first artist I remember who stood out to me. I remember being in 5th grade and how I happened upon his autobiography in the school library. I sat there in the maze of books and read.
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Bill Peet was born in Grandview, Indiana, on January 29,1915. Peet began drawing at an early age, and filled tablets full of sketches. Often, instead of doing lessons, Peet would draw in the margins of his textbooks—which were very popular for their added illustrations when he sold them back. Animals were always a love of Peet's. Most of his adventures as a boy to catch animals were in the hope that he could capture them and sketch them. The young Peet would also sneak onto greeting parties at the train station as a boy just to see the train's mechanical workings. In addition, as a teen, he would try to sketch the circus big top, but he was always in the way of the set up crew. (All of this reflects in his work! - L)
After a grueling hiring process, he was brought on to animate for Snow White. Within a few years, he became very close to Disney, though he found him a difficult man to work with at times. After his time at Disney studios, he went on to write and illustrate children's books. Much of the success Peet's stories have enjoyed is due to the memorable themes they contain: trying when there's not much obvious hope, not allowing taunting of others to prevent individual success, finding compromise in solutions and others.
Peet died in 2002 at the age of 87.
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Even now, I am always taken with his simple but detailed drawings.
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