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| Illustration by Charles Robinson |
The Secret Garden is long considered a piece
of classic English children's literature and I would like to bring this
story alive in a contemporary style for modern audiences. With the
story itself being set in the late 1800's and the existing artwork being
very dated and typical of this era, the story is almost an
untranslatable text to modern day audiences. The most contemporary
version of this novel is the 1993 film adaptation which would still be lost on most 21st century children.
I enjoyed this story myself growing up and would hope that this novel is not forever lost on modern audiences. I hope to engage children with contemporary styles of illustrations, character designs and breathe life into what I know to be a good book full of strong characters and visuals.
From this project I would hope to take away a collection of children's book illustrations that I could add to my portfolio to show to art directors and children's book publishers to add another string to my bow and broaden the field of illustration I could work in for the future.
Popular children's book illustrators such as Oliver Jeffers are my main influence for this project. Their approach to character design and children's book illustration could not be further from the existing styles that accompany this text and they have a very stylized and unique style of illustration. They have captured the hearts of today's children as The Secret Garden did me when I was growing up.
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| A spread from Oliver Jeffers 'Lost and Found' (2005) |