To get a taste of how children books are illustrated, I flipped through a few of them and noticed a particular style among them.

For instance, the illustration from the book Safety On We Go is drawn with fine and grainy lines which is a certain type of texture style oftenly used. Characters tend to have staged poses. They can sometimes fill the entire page with small intrigued objects around the main character (refer to Trina Schart Hyman’s artwork). Despite being assigned to reinterpret rhymes in a different manner, I somehow would like to keep few of these elements in my compositions for these are what makes children rhymes magical.

Research – Surreal Artists

Surrealism is a breakthrough for conventional art, as it plays with viewer’s perspective and sense of proportion. Here are the artists I have gotten inspiration from –

Edward Gorey uses pen and ink to illustrate daunting scenes. His artworks are heavily filled with short and fine lines, leaving a very compact and eerie impression.

Anita Kunz adds in humour to her illustrations, which can better provoke emotions and grow viewers’ interests in knowing the message behind these artworks. 

Wolfgang Paalen plays with simple shapes on these art pieces while working on the negative spaces in between.

*All photos are found from Pinterest. 

Process – exploration in editing 

I used Hey Diddle Diddle as my practicing subjects on Photoshop to understand how filters like threshold and transformation tools work.

THE CAT AND THE FIDDLE 

Using just two subjects, the cat and fiddle, they created a systematic and repetitive layout. I tried playing with Threshold filter on the cats, which gave me an insightful collage of shadow variables. They can bring across different moods, less shadow intensified cat looks innocent whereas those with darker shading look scary and mysterious. Fiddles are aligned neatly to fill up the background and slightly tilted diagonally to create a singular movement in synced to the cats. Arrangement is overall clean and neat, but lack of creativity.

Repetition of the same image and variation of shading values will be seen in my final composition 3: She had so many children she didn’t know what to do.

THE COW JUMPED OVER THE MOON

As the original photo of the moon already has densely filled lines and pattern, I decided to keep its essence and dramatise with Threshold filter. Also, I can achieve the kind of compressed fine lines drawing style found in traditional children books. Cows are filtered with Path Blur to show jumping motion. It is one of my discoveries in pushing subjects to look more 3-dimensional.

Highly textured subjects will be seen in final composition 4: Couldn’t put Humpty together again; blur filter in composition 1: And the dish ran away with the spoon.

THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED TO SEE SUCH SPORT

Images are inversely contrasted for further experimentation. Highly exposed subjects pop out with its large white spaces, complemented by a darker shade in the background. Despite the intentional juxtapose, it still looks boring for its literal context interpretation.

As such, I tried adding images that require audiences to decipher its underlying meanings. It will be seen in final composition 2: The little dog laughed to see such sport and 3: She had so many children she didn’t know what to do.

Final Compositions

1) And the dish ran away with the spoon

Story description

Jumping onto the table, a deliberately dressed dish leaps forward to reach for the flying spoon. Her old partner, who is laying on the floor lifelessly, seems to have given up in the relationship. She has decided to leave for good. If you would look closely at the top right corner of the composition, a policeman arrives to arrest the adultery couple. However, his clumsiness has landed him way too far from his target.

design principles used

• Emphasis – Background is blurred to ‘pop’ out foreground elements
• Movement – Arrangement of the laying spoon, dish and flying spoon creates a diagonal visual continuity across the composition
• Proportion – Stark contrast in sizes between the policeman and culinary to prioritise attention to the main characters – dish and spoons

2) The little dog laughed to see such sport

story description

“What is taking him so long?” the pack of dogs wonders. They are dying to play catching with their new found friend. Hopping onto each other’s back, they elevate themselves to look for their friend. As the last dog peers over the little boy’s back to see what is he up to. He is so engrossed into the gameboy, he did not hear the mocking laughters coming from his back.

design principles used 

• Rhythm – Dogs face in alternate directions
• Gradation – Size of dogs slowly decreases
• Balance – The platform that little boy is sitting on occupies half of the composition, leaving the other half of the space for the dogs

3) She had so many children she didn’t know what to do 

story description

Looking into the mirror, Frida Kahlo imagines how her child would look like. How she wish to embrace her own child in her arms. The faces of the illusional child get blurrier as they float nearer to her, as she knows it is impossible to realise this dream.

design principles used

• Rhythm –  Faces of child form ring of circles around the mirror
• Balance –  Symmetrical composition
• Gradation – Value shade of the faces fades off into the center
• Movement – Overlapped faces around the mirror are arranged in a manner that directs optical focal point to Frida Kahlo at the center
• Harmony – Despite an overwhelming repetition of faces filling the composition, they exist harmoniously by gradual shading and similar movements

4) couldn’t put humpty together again

story description 

Humpty is broken and cannot be mended. It is thrown into the infinite galaxy hole to be disposed permanently. Even in the last few seconds, four formulated hearts are still trying their best to save Humpty. Pumping and pumping, with their veins popping out and muscles about to tear. The mission is not over until Humpty has its last breath.

design principles used

• Diversity – Variety of heart illustrations
• Balance – Symmetrical composition
• Movement – Visual continuity from the hearts of four corners to Humpty
• Contrast – Blurred background suggests the long distance between the subjects and galaxy