Brian & Wendy Froud

Because Brian and Wendy are the guests of honor at next year's Illustration Masters Class.  And Films such as The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth were huge creative inspirations growing up. Here's an excerpt from an article written about Brian his involvement in those two movies:

"'The irony of working on The Dark Crystal was that I had moved to the country to allow my work to blossom, and here I was in New York. And I thought there's something wrong with this picture!' But Brian threw himself into the project, and at the initial creative meetings he and others working on the film discussed creatures and how they might act, what their personalities would be and so on. It was during this time that Brian met Wendy, who had been hired for her skills as a doll maker. Together they refined the initial prototypes of the puppets before flying back to London to be near Jim Henson....

It was at a screening of The Dark Crystal in San Francisco that Brian and Jim Henson's vow never to make another film was forgotten. 'We were sitting in the back of a limo, having drunk a bit too much wine, and he said 'shall we do another one?'and I said 'oh, why not.' He asked if I had any ideas and I said not really so he suggested Native American Indians but I didn't really know anything about them so I said what about goblins? He liked the idea, but I said I want to put live people in it this time. Immediately I had this flash of an image of a baby surrounded by goblins.'
Jim asked Brian what the story was, but he didn't know. All he could think of was of a labyrinth, which is not only a physical conundrum but also a metaphor for many things." ~interview with Guy Cracknell

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