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Hodges

Hodges Soileau



Hodges Soileau was the illustrator for the American cover art in The Baby-Sitter's Club series.

Career[]

Hodges studied art at the University of Southwestern Louisiana, graduating in 1969 with a major in advertising design. He worked for Tracey Locke Advertising Agency in Dallas, Texas, and later with Middaugh Associates Design Studio in Houston. In 1971, Soileau began a freelance career in illustration. His work has been commissioned by most of the major publishing houses in New York. He has also worked for many of the largest corporations in the United States, such as Exxon, AT&T, Meridith Corp., Riechold Corp., U.S. Industries and General Electric. He was a member of the American Portrait Society and a previous twenty-three-year long member of The Society of Illustrators in New York. Soileau's paintings are displayed in many private and public collections, including the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Coast Guard.

Book Cover Illustration Process[]

Soileau described the process of creating a book illustration as operating the following way: "First, the Art Director would send me a concept sheet describing the characters, the fashion, and the action they wanted to see on the cover. Next, I would produce several rough thumbnail sketches and call my photographer in New York to pick models and book a shoot. On the day of the shoot, I would attend, sketches in hand, and the photographer would pose the models to match my sketches — often to a tee! I would receive beautiful black and white 16×20 prints to take back to my studio as visual aids. The prints had gorgeous values. I would then create several versions of the cover sketch for the Art Director, who would approve one. I would go and finish the assignment. The sketches were pretty well worked out, so there were rarely any changes (thankfully) that had to be made on the finished painting."

BSC Books and Merchandise Illustrated[]

  • Main Series #5-131, #1-4 1995-1997 Reprints covers (in addition, artwork for #5-7,45,53 was redone on reprints).
  • Mysteries #1-32 (all except the last 4) - he is credited with #33 but that is probably a mistake, as the style is completely different
  • Super Specials #1-15 (all)
  • Super Mysteries #1-4 (all)
  • Portrait Collections #1-6 (all)
    • At least the portraits of Mary Anne, Stacey, and Kristy were originally full-body illustrations, cropped to just the character's face on the book covers.
  • BSC Calendars - all 5 wall calendars (1990-1994), and all 3 student planners
    • a few pieces of original artwork on calendar pages that were never published elsewhere
  • The Baby-Sitters Club Chain Letter (cover portraits from other book covers)
  • The Baby-Sitters Club Secret Santa (cover portraits from other book covers, and on page 23, artwork of Jessi dancing which originally appeared in a slightly different form on the cover of the 1990-91 School Planner and Date Book)
  • The Complete Guide to the Baby-Sitters Club
  • Standalone illustrations of characters that appeared on merchandise and promotional material - the cover of the 1990-91 School Planner and Date Book shows an example of individual photos for all seven characters
  • Vignette photos illustrating scenes in various BSC books published in 1994-1996 that originally (and likely only) appeared in G*I*R*L magazine.
  • Presumably, all 13 TV Series (1990) VHS tape covers. #10 Soileau for sure illustrated as the artwork appears in a picture he posted, #5 appears in the 1992 BSC calendar, and all covers are painted in his artistic style, although he is not credited as the artist on the VHS tape boxes.

External Links[]

Original Paintings Gallery[]

Main Series[]



Mystery and Super Mystery Books[]

Super Specials[]

Other Book and Calendar Covers[]

Painting Galleries[]





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