Freya Blackwood (born 1975) is an Australian

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

and

special effects Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wor ...

artist. She worked on special effects for

The Lord of the Rings film trilogy ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

from 2001 to 2003 and won the

Kate Greenaway Medal The Kate Greenaway Medal is a British literary award that annually recognises "distinguished illustration in a book for children". It is conferred upon the illustrator by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) ...

for British children's book illustration in 2010.

Early life

Blackwood was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, Scotland during a tour of the United Kingdom by her parents. She grew up in

Orange, New South Wales Orange is a city in the Central Tablelands region of New South Wales, Australia. It is west of the state capital, Sydney on a great circle at an altitude of . Orange had an estimated urban population of 40,493 Estimated resident population, 3 ...

. Before becoming a full-time illustrator, she lived in New Zealand and worked on ''The Lord of the Rings'' films, specifically the special effects for the

hobbit Hobbits are a fictional race of people in the novels of J. R. R. Tolkien. About half average human height, Tolkien presented hobbits as a variety of humanity, or close relatives thereof. Occasionally known as halflings in Tolkien's writings, ...

s' feet. She finished a Bachelor of Design at the

University of Technology, Sydney The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is a public research university located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Although its origins are said to trace back to the 1830s, the university was founded in its current form in 1988. As of 2021 ...

, and finished two short films during her work in the Sydney film industry."BOOKED OUT Speakers Agency- Freya Blackwood"
Booked Out Speakers Agency. Retrieved 2010-08-26.

Film industry career

Blackwood worked in the film industry between 2001 and 2008, producing the film ''Blackspot'' (2008), acting as an extra in the short film

Zombie Movie ''Zombie Movie'' is a short zombie film produced by 2Chums Moving Pictures in 2005. 2Chums Moving Pictures consisted mainly of Michael J. Asquith & Ben Stenbeck, both former employees at Weta Workshop and current employees at Valve. The movie wa ...

(2005). She was a special effects artist for all three ''The Lord of the Rings'' films: ''

The Fellowship of the Ring ''The Fellowship of the Ring'' is the first of three volumes of the epic novel ''The Lord of the Rings'' by the English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It is followed by ''The Two Towers'' and ''The Return of the King''. It takes place in the fiction ...

'', ''

The Two Towers ''The Two Towers'' is the second volume of J. R. R. Tolkien's high fantasy novel ''The Lord of the Rings''. It is preceded by ''The Fellowship of the Ring'' and followed by ''The Return of the King''. Title and publication ''The Lord of the R ...

'', and ''

The Return of the King ''The Return of the King'' is the third and final volume of J. R. R. Tolkien's ''The Lord of the Rings'', following ''The Fellowship of the Ring'' and ''The Two Towers''. It was published in 1955. The story begins in the kingdom of Gondor, whi ...

''.

Children's books

As of June 2010, Blackwood has illustrated eleven books, three of which have been published in the United Kingdom by Scholastic. As of June 2013,

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the OCL ...

libraries report holding more than fifteen titles in 2003 to 2012 editions, written by Blackwood herself, Alan Bagnall, Nick Bland, Chardi Christian, Rosie Dickins,

Roddy Doyle Roddy Doyle (born 8 May 1958) is an Irish novelist, dramatist and screenwriter. He is the author of eleven novels for adults, eight books for children, seven plays and screenplays, and dozens of short stories. Several of his books have been ma ...

Libby Gleeson Libby Gleeson AM (born 1950) is an Australian children's author. Born in Young, New South Wales, she is one of six children, the sister of former ABC TV Washington Correspondent Michael Gleeson, and the mother of ''Home and Away'' actress Je ...

, John Heffernan, Heiwari Johnson, Cecily Matthews, Kyle Mewburn,

Jan Ormerod Jan Ormerod (23 September 1946 – 23 January 2013), born Janet Louise Hendry, was an Australian illustrator of children's books. She first came to prominence from her wordless picture book ''Sunshine'' which won the 1982 Mother Goose Award. He ...

, A. B. Paterson, and

Margaret Wild Margaret Wild (born 1948) is an Australian children's writer. She has written more than 40 books for children. Her work has been published around the world and has won several awards. She was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Childre ...

. ''Half a World Away'' by Libby Gleeson is held by the greatest number of libraries Blackwood both wrote and illustrated (in watercolour and pencil) ''Ivy Loves to Give'' (US edition: Scholastic, 2010), a 24-page picture book about a toddler, for ages two and up. The story features the "well-intentioned mistakes" of a "toddler who is learning where things belong". Blackwood won the annual

from the professional librarians for her part in the

picture book A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images ...

''Harry & Hopper'', written by

and published by Scholastic in 2009. The award recognises the year's best-illustrated children's book published in the U.K. Her illustrations of Hopper were inspired by a dog she had as a child. The story features a boy and puppy who are "inseparable" until the puppy is killed while the boy is at school. "Blackwood's beautiful illustrations—laser print with

watercolour Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...

gouache Gouache (; ), body color, or opaque watercolor is a water-medium paint consisting of natural pigment, water, a binding agent (usually gum arabic or dextrin), and sometimes additional inert material. Gouache is designed to be opaque. Gouache h ...

and charcoal—add an appropriate layer of melancholy to Wild's clean, economical prose."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Blackwood, Freya Australian illustrators Australian children's book illustrators Australian women illustrators Kate Greenaway Medal winners Special effects people Artists from Edinburgh University of Technology Sydney alumni 1975 births Living people Scottish emigrants to Australia Date of birth missing (living people)

Early life

Film industry career

Children's books

See also

References

External links