Cut! How Lotte Reiniger and a Pair of Scissors Revolutionized Animation

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Last year I got to work with Greenwillow Books to illustrate the picture book “CUT! How Lotte Reiniger and a Pair of Scissors Revolutionized Animation” written by C.E. Winters. It's out now, and you can buy it here.

I'm also happy to see that the book has received some good reviews, including starred reviews from The Horn Book and School Library Journal:

“With a refrain of ‘snip, snip, snip!’ the story introduces readers to German film pioneer Lotte Reiniger (1899–1981). Schu’s exquisite digital illustrations possess a strong sense of illumination and depth, often suggesting a tactile quality, as if constructed from paper.” — excerpt from The Horn Book's starred review

"This story shines a light on artist, moviemaker, inventor, and trailblazer Lotte Reiniger. Born in Germany, Reiniger loved using paper and scissors to make beautiful art. One day her grandmother took her to the theater to see a silent movie. The child thought it was magical and decided that she wanted to make movies, making characters cut from paper called silhouettes. Winters and Schu do an excellent job in telling the story of Reiniger, who created the first animated film and is indirectly responsible for all of the animated cartoons and movies audiences have enjoyed for generations. It is story of hope, rejection, and determination, and is inspiring to all artists.VERDICT A wonderful addition to public, school, and classroom collections." –Laura Ellis, School Library Journal

And here are some pictures of the book:

Jan. 2023 Show at Nucleus House with Paper Puffin

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This month I have work up at the new Nucleus House gallery in Portland, alongside Paper Puffin. I’ve been working with oil on canvas recently, and the show is mostly that. Check it out in person if you’re in Portland, on weekends 12-4pm until the 29th, on NE 11th & Alberta St. You can check out the on their website, but here are a few from the show.

Dark Hour Books - New small press

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I’ve started a small zine press, Dark Hour Books, and this is one of the first books I’m releasing: Pickpocket the Big Top, 26 prose poems by Ben Niespodziany. I did the art & design. You can pick this up on the Dark Hour Etsy shop.

I’ve been working on starting this press for a while and I’m excited to be releasing stuff! Follow the @darkhourbooks Instagram page for updates on this and future titles!

35mm photos

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Typewriter Drawings

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Recently I’ve been making little drawings using typewriters. (I have a few typewriters.)

35mm Photos, Lincoln City (Oregon), Summer 2021

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Interview with Kathy Temean - Illustrator Saturday

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Kathy Temean kindly interviewed me for her blog this weekend, and I answered some questions and talked a bit about my process for making a digital drawing. Here’s a link to the interview:

https://kathytemean.wordpress.com/2021/08/21/illustrator-saturday-matt-schu/

35mm film photos. Montana, July 2021.

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35mm film photos. Manzanita, Oregon. July 2021.

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Bird Meets Worm interview

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Jane Smith over at Bird Meets Worm blog recently interviewed me for her monthly artist feature, wherein I talked about house portraits and zine-making.

Here’s the link: https://birdmeetsworm.blogspot.com/2021/06/super-star-interviews-matt-schumacher.html

35mm photos, Dec. 2020 - May 2021

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35mm (full-frame) photos from December 2020 - May 2021. Shot on several different cameras. AristaEDU 400 and Tri-X 400 film, developed and scanned by me.

Half-frame 35mm photos, Dec 2020 - May 2021

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Interview with Chillhop Music

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I had a nice time talking with Ben at Chillhop recently about my process for making the recent Psalm Trees / Guillaume Muschalle album art with them. We also talked about working remotely, social media, and other stuff. Here’s a link to that interview:

https://chillhop.com/5152-art-process-mood-vs-subject-an-interview-with-matt-schumacher/

Along with that, they have up on their YouTube channel a realtime video of me re-drawing the cover art with ink and gouache. They’ll be giving away the drawing as part of a raffle soon.

Album Art and Animation for Chillhop Music

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I got to work with Chillhop Music on their new album by Psalm Trees and Guillaume Muschalle, “We Must Believe in Spring”. I made cover art and animation, and it’s been fun to see how they’ve been using it. Here’s a link to the full album on YouTube, and some images used for the cover and singles.

35mm half-frame photos from November 2020

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I got a working half-frame camera in November so the bad news for you, dear reader, is that I can now shoot twice as many photos on a roll and will be taking even more photos than I have been. I got an Olympus Pen FT, and it’s been really nice to shoot with in general.

By the way, other than being able to take twice as many photos, the draw of the half-frame camera for me is that, since each image is smaller on the roll of film, the grain is much more pronounced in each image. In fact, it’s twice as large as it would appear in a normal full-frame 35mm image.

I love the gritty look of these images that comes as a result of this larger grain, and I love how the process of reflected light being recorded onto a film strip can distort reality. It’s more a process of mark-making than of capturing real objects and scenes. Film photography in general has this appeal for me, and black-and-white film is already great at abstracting reality. But the smaller images with larger grain that the half-frame camera produces add yet another layer of distortion between the real thing and how it’s expressed in the final image. These images feel even more dreamlike to me, they have the quality of a moment half-remembered. And rather than simply being a still moment in time, these images make it look as though the world itself held still and posed.

35mm photos from November 2020

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