My retelling of the brothers' Grimm Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten was my very first book, and I was an extremely lucky so-and-so indeed to have been given the chance by Walker Books to work on it soon after I graduated in 2003. The book was published in 2004.
Opening illustration. Sharp-eyed observers will notice my tribute to
Dürer's engraving of St. Jerome in the gourd at the top.
I feel rather abashed that I never posted about this book until now. So many things were planned which didn't quite manage to materialise in a timely manner, which I'm afraid is exactly characteristic of me. Though I imagine readers are already accustomed by now to there being almost no sense of order at all in this journal.
Rooster. The original artwork of this illustration now belongs to the art director who worked with me on this book. It was he indeed who came to Kingston University in my second year and oversaw a project with the students. We managed to remain in touch, and it led first to a commission for a cover illustration for a novel which I was able to do whilst still at university. Bremen then followed. My continued association with Walker Books since had been thanks entirely to him.
'By Nightfall...' The original of this is now in the collection of the editor.
The Robbers.
Closing illustration. This and the opening illustration were the two to be bordered in a 'bookplate' manner on a single page, as opposed to all the other illustrations working as spreads. They were designed to act rather like bookends for the contents.
Tailpiece. The heart-shaped book is based on a real medieval music book: the Chansonnier Cordiforme of Jean de Montchenu. I'm personally rather fond of this drawing. You may recognise it from the top of this journal.
I thought it would be interesting to post some of the roughs and preparatory work for this book too. As is so often the case, some of these were in many ways much better than the final illustrations which made it into the book.
Cover roughs.
Studies of Dog and Donkey.
Cat and Rooster.
Early versions of the robbers. They looked rather more formidable here.
Costume notes for the robbers, together with the thumbnail of the robber spread above. The robbers had no names in the original tale, of course, nor do the names I've given them here appear anywhere in my retelling; but I just thought it would help that they had them whilst they were being created.
I enjoyed these larger studies. The scene on the right turned out quite differently in the final book version. Apart from the change in composition as dictated to by the double-page spread and the space allowed for the text, I always preferred this 'rough' as being far better drawn. Here is a
larger copy.
Thumbnails/plan of the spreads. It has been a long time since I last worked out so careful a sequence as this, I must confess.
Although it now feels like old work (I'm still unable to believe that seven years have passed since), I will always be fond of it for being my first. I also find myself wondering how I managed some of things I did with this book, even to the extent of fearing that I may not be able to do quite the same things now, notwithstanding having moved on and improved (hopefully) in many ways.
flynnacatri wrote a very kind
review of the book on Squidoo.