Delighted viewers

In September 1952, television became available to the public and everyone wanted to own one. It touched us to think our images were going out to people hundreds, even thousands of kilometres away. Each word, each image had an immediate effect that was hard to imagine. It was extremely stimulating, and it drove us to do our very best to produce enriching visual information. Chants et danses du monde, produced by Roger Racine, aired every two weeks with dancers and musicians in traditional costumes from around the world. My drawings—and there were quite a few—had to illustrate the dress, architecture, landscapes, and city and rural life in the countries being featured. Since the image changed every five seconds, I had to come up with 10 to 15 drawings a day. Also, I was starting to play around with cut-outs to put some movement into the drawings. By adding surprise effects like that, we could use the illustration for a longer time. With some rudimentary pans with the heavy cameras, we could vary the horizontals. I also did some trompe l’oeil drawings for the host’s introduction, and to make the small sets in our tiny studios seem larger.

The Ugly Duckling (Illustrator section)