Work on Hansel & Gretel with Simon Lewin at Saint Jude’s Prints has begun in earnest.
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We’ve agreed that the book will consist of 32 pages (8 x 4 spreads) with four fold-outs. This format offers 15 double-pages in which to tell the story. The image below shows an overhead view of the open book with the pages fanned. (The fold-outs will be full-page sized, though for clarity in the image they are shown as being quite narrow.) The book will be square in format, and in colour.
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My story reference is the translation by Lore Segal made for the two-volume The Juniper Tree and Other Tales from Grimm, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 1973, with illustrations by the peerless Maurice Sendak. (The copy on my shelves is one of my most treasured illustrated books.) However, my Hansel & Gretel is to be a picture-book, with a text of only two words that appear at the beginning of the story, and at the end. For the rest, everything must be conveyed in images.
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Below: roughly working out the progression of pictures across double-spreads with fold-outs.
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In order to shape the story in images, I made a spread-sheet of the page openings. On one set of narrow paper strips I wrote brief descriptions of all the aspects of the story necessary to convey the narrative, and on another set, I noted the images I was most excited about making that were central to my vision for the book. To begin with there were far more descriptive than image strips, and overall, far more strips than could possibly be contained within the available space. Nevertheless with this overview of the narrative, I could see where multiple story elements could be condensed into single images, and quite quickly I began eliminating strips.
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My goal was to pare down to a single narrative/image strip per double-page. Once this had been achieved it became clear there was ample space in the book for me to tell the story.
The spread-sheet additionally helped me distribute the key visual images… the ones that I thought held the most potential for dramatic impact… evenly throughout the book. At a glance I could see the shape of the drama.
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Above, the description of an image… the ghost of the murdered witch streaming from the chimney of the gingerbread house… and below, a rough lay-out of how it will appear across a double-page spread.
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The page fold-outs enable the narrative of a single image to extend to the next stage of the story. Here the children appear to be successfully making good their escape from the witch’s house, but with the fold-out opened, she and her gingerbread henchman are nearly upon them.
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Below: character sketches.
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I’m in the process of compiling a ‘dummy’ of the book, so that Simon and I have an agreed plan to work from. I’ve also started building maquettes of the characters, to help me find the best compositional devices for depicting them, and I plan to build a model of the gingerbread house in the woods, to better picture what I want it to be. (A model will help me create an overhead viewpoint of it.)
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Below: worked up character sketch.
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Clive Hicks-Jenkins' Artlog: 
Reblogged this on all gray inside.
Thank you, Kevin. I’m most obliged.
Once again, so thrilled that you document and articulate your process. As much as I love the finished products, it’s the journey that gets one there which is equally fascinating and enlightening. Most people truly have no idea how much work goes into the creation of a piece!! And as the mother of a 5 & 2 year old, I can tell that this book when published will be a favorite!!
Thank you for your kind words, Jennifer. I must confess that I see the edition as more of an artist’s picture book than a book for children, though of course I hope it may have diverse appeal. I imagine it as turning out too dark and scary for little ones, but you are an artist, and your children may well share their mother’s sophisticated eye. (-;
Even at 5, my oldest has a penchant for zombies and the darker fairy tales. As he is at a stage where he now wants to draw “things” I asked him what he’d like to learn to draw. “Skeletons!” he immediately replied. So I do indeed believe that your beautiful book will become a much loved one, especially if there are limited or no words!
Sounds like he might be my target audience! Skeletons, huh? A boy after my own heart.
I think we might call the text ‘limited. There are four words in it, two at the beginning and two at the end. (-;
I love that first picture, excellent , I can almost hear and smell what’s happening! Wonderfully evocative! The sketches too , sigh, how clever you are……..xxL
Dear friend, thank you so much.
A timely post as I’ve just sent you a progress report on the gingerbread zombie models!
P.S. Can’t wait to see the ghost streaming out of the chimney image!
This is going to be one heck of a picture book!
Peter, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the pics you’ve sent of the Gingerbread Zombie figures in progress, and I shall make a dedicated post in the next day or so. This is so exciting.
my thoughts precisely, it is very exciting!
I’m very glad you are pleased with the models progress so far too 🙂
Wonderful, wonderful images. I love the gingerbread man frozen into a drawing just as he is being smashed to bits. And I love the witch with her dress covered in eyes! This book is going to be amazing, I’m so excited to watch this progress.
Also, best wishes for 2015!
Hello Jodi. Good to hear from you. I’m pleased to read that you’re enjoying the process of this book. I’m enjoying it myself. Happy New Year to you too.
This brought back memories of (can it really be THIRTY years ago!) being a Sesame student and learning to pare down a myth or fairy tale to its essence, an interesting exercise.
The ghost of the witch puts me in mind of Petrushka’s ghost at the end of Stravinsky’s ballet shaking his fist…hope they still get away.
Love as ever
B x
Yes, I fear it is three decades ago. We must have blinked! (Tee hee!)
YES!!! Petrushka’s ghost! Quite right. But minus the heart-rending aspects, because this witch was a nasty piece of work, and no-one will mourn her.
oh, this is magic!! what a wonderful, wonderful creation this will be. can we get in line now?
Gladly! (-;
xxx
Reblogged this on St Johns Hall Gallery and commented:
I think this is amazing work. I especially like the worked up drawings, the attention to gradation of tone, the iconographic other-world atmosphere. Fantastic.
Thank you for your kind words.
A formidable challenge. Carry on, then!
Yessir Captain! (-; xxx
Can I ask Clive if you think in words or pictures first, or does it depend on what you are doing?
I know you are the painter known for having lines of poetry pinned to his easel for inspiration, so the description of the mapping out of your Hansel & Gretel picture book made me want to ask this question about your process.
I very much enjoyed this post by the way, as I have produced/edited magazines for PR clients in the past and I always found the mapping out phase of the process very satisfying.
I am a woman who is happy when she has a plan, so I am lost in admiration over the one you have produced!! This is the type of work I find immensely rewarding when it is completed, as you know exactly where you are with things.
Often the two are in tandem. In the great galleries, when I stand studying a painting, I take in all the details even as I start making a mental description in words. Often I’ll have my notebook, but even when I don’t, I still try to find ways to describe what I’m looking at, because if I find the right words, they work better to recollect the experience for me than any photograph or sketch.
A picture-book is a simple mechanism, though the process of making the story to fit in it is massively complicated. Without the spreadsheet, there would be too much information to hold in the head. Not one image, as in a single painting, but images piled upon images, all needing to earn their places in the book, to shape the narrative and lead the story forward, and to be rewarding individually and collectively. Characters must be consistent from page to page and when viewed from all angles. Topography needs to be feasible, journeys have to be mapped, the familiar points of this particular story honoured and yet re-shaped to surprise. When I attempted to envisage the story only in my head, I got hopelessly lost in the many possibilities. By inscribing the significant points and episodes onto those narrow strips of paper, everything became clearer. It made the editing an ordered process. I had the overview.
Thanks for explaining your process Clive.
As you know, I have been told that my own process is to think in words and to then find images to explain the words (I am rubbish at visualisation in meditation!!)
I have come to the conclusion that this must be one of the reasons why I find the way you work so appealing.
Ah, this takes me back decades to my own days of commissioning picture books. I shall follow your progress with great interest.
I hope you continue to enjoy what I produce.
Wow, it is no mean feat creating this book. As hillsofnottingham says, watching the process up to this point has been so interesting.
Thank you. It’s an interesting journey. I’ve always wanted to illustrate one of my favourite fairy-tales, and this is the opportunity.
It is intriguing watching the process you have for creating the book. I love the notes. Almost as revealing as the sketches. Although I think my sympathy is with the zombie gingerbread man, Gretel looks psychotic.
Ha ha! It seems that this Gretel bites back!