I haven’t actually mentioned on my blog that one of my New Years resoluntions for 2019 is to produce more book and editorial illustrations. I’ve set myself the challenge of completing one project each month, alternating between book illustration and editorial illustration
In January I created 6 illustrations of The Secret Garden. If you’ve never read the book (or seen any of the adaptations) its about a girl called Mary Lennox who moves from India to Yorkshire when her parents die. Mary doesn’t have much attention or companionship, but she finds this by discovering an old hidden garden.
At the beginning of the book Mary is very isolated and lonely. I wanted to create an image that reflected that, so I’ve used these branches to separate Mary. I didn’t want to include any faces in this image to make it feel unfriendly; so the portraits have blank faces, and Mary is facing with her back to us.
The 2nd illustration shows the relationship between Mary and Martha; one of the maids. Mary is used to being waited on in India and has people to dress her.
Martha tells Mary about a garden that has been locked away since the death of Mrs Craven (Mary’s aunt). Mary explores the grounds in search of the secret garden.
I decided to repeat Mary and the robin in this image to suggest movement around the grounds. I also hope to draw the viewers eye around the page with the use of the spiral of ivy leaves.
Illustrations 3 & 4 are my favourite in this series. I think becasue they have quite simple backgrounds. I’ve used my own handmade textures which I created out of charcoal and paint to add patterns and detail to all the illustrations.
Mary makes friends with Martha’s younger brother Dickon, and the two of them bring the garden back to life.
There is a lot of mystery in The Secret Garden. Another thing that has been hidden away is Mary’s cousin Colin who believes he will never walk and stays in his darkened room all the time.
The last illustration shows the three characters dancing among the garden that is blooming with roses.
This month (February) I’m working on some editorial illustration for my portfolio. Watch this space for an update on that. I’ll also be making video updates to my progress on my YouTube channel, which you can check out here.