Friday, November 13, 2009

Meeting Charles Santore

It's not often that you get to meet one of your idols and having that person turn out to be as impressive as you'd imagined is a bonus. I took a chance and called illustrator Charles Santore a few weeks back and told him I'd be in town. I asked if he would have time to meet with me and, without hesitation, he invited me to his studio. Mr. Santore was as nice a person as one could hope for. I had the opportunity to see many of his original paintings which were illustrations for his wonderful books. Snow White, The Wizard of Oz and Santa Claus to name a few. We spoke about illustration and he gave me his opinion of my own work which was encouraging and complimentary. He also gave me some advice on making my work even stronger. I value his suggestions. This was a great chance for me to see the artist at work on a new project as well. This is one day I won't soon forget.

2 comments:

Adam said...

I just saw this post from last November and had to comment. I had a similar experience meeting Mr. Santore about ten or so years ago, and he was just as giving and gracious as you descibed. He's really as nice as he is good.

phil lindholm said...

I can concur that Mr. Santore is a true Gentleman. Back in 2002, I wrote him after purchasing a signed First Edition of his book ''Snow White''.I let him know that I was a lifelong collector of illustrated fairy tale books, ''Snow White'' editions in particular, and I told him that I thought his interpretation was the most beautiful I had ever seen. He was gracious enough to wrie back a note of appreciation, informing me that he had sent a copy of my letter to his publisher. (''Snow White'' was then out of print). On the bottom of his note, he had sketched one of the Seven Dwarfs! I will always treasure that note, along with the book.