Trina Schart Hyman, 65, award-winning illustrator
Trina Schart Hyman, a prolific, award-winning illustrator of children's books, died Friday of cancer in Lyme, N.H. She was 65.
Many of Mrs. Hyman's characters were the stuff of legends -- fairy tale princesses and gnomes, Arthurian heroes. But she also imbued many of her characters with qualities taken from composites of her neighbors in the Upper Connecticut Valley, her friends, even her grandchildren.
In 1985, her illustrations won the Caldecott Medal, the highest honor for children's books, for the work in ''Saint George and the Dragon."
Three other books garnered Caldecott Honors: in 1984 for a retelling of ''Little Red Riding Hood," in 1990 for ''Herschel and the Hanukkah Goblins," and in 2000 for ''A Child's Calendar," a book of John Updike's poems.
In all, she illustrated more than 150 books.
Mrs. Hyman once said she wanted to be an illustrator before she really knew what one was, entranced by stories read to her by her mother from her infancy through her childhood. Early in her life, she sought ways to bring words to life.
A graduate of the Philadelphia Museum College of Art, Boston Museum School of the Arts, and Konstfackskolan, the Swedish state art school, in Stockholm, she moved to Lyme in 1966.
In addition to fairy tale staples, her illustrations accompanied works by such authors as Updike, Dylan Thomas, and Mark Twain.
She also was widely recognized for putting her stamp on the children's literary magazine Cricket. She was its art director from 1972 to 1979.
Mrs. Hyman told The Boston Globe that she thought the pinnacle of her career, her Caldecott Award in 1985, was also one of the lowest points in her artistry.
''I realized that I was drawing the same figure over and over again, because I don't work from photographs or models when I do my illustration; it's all from my head," she said in 1992. ''So I thought I was not only in a rut as far as my creative output, but I also just hated my work."
In response, Mrs. Hyman turned to painting models in an attempt to expand her creativity.
''This painting from life is really an exercise for me," she said. ''I felt like it's saved my life several times. When you work in your studio at home you are answerable to everyone. Your work is answerable to everyone. With this work, I am not answerable to anyone."
Her later book illustrations often conveyed a warmer, more painterly quality. Her characters were more nuanced and distinctive, often, more human, according to book critics.
Of the process of illustrating for a book, Mrs. Hyman said: ''Many people think you're doing it for fun. You pick up your Crayola and you stay in the lines. What they don't know is that it can be just as frustrating, exhausting and stressful as working in a bank.
''It's more so because you're laying yourself open. It's your soul that your laying out on the table, and you've got to learn how to do it so that you satisfy everybody: your author, your publisher, your editor, your public, your teachers, your librarian, your parents and yet survive inside yourself."
Until entering the hospital two weeks ago, Mrs. Hyman worked in her ''tiny, messy" studio, heated by a little wood-burning stove.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this obituary.
