detail from the chapter 5 illustration.
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My name is Evan Dahm and I would like to illustrate and publish an edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It was published in 1900 and is now in the public domain. I like it a lot and I think I can illustrate it in a way that works with the story and has a visual character that’s distinct from other interpretations.
Here are some early drawings trying to figure out shapes and colors for the characters.
More art intermittently
The Chapter 11 illustration is probably the most ambitious one yet so I thought I would make a post about the process! People like that stuff, right? I hope you like that stuff.
I had a vague image of the city as a complicated, squarish M.C. Escher-looking place, and did a lot of obtuse little thumbnail drawings to figure out how to convey that in a way that made sense. Sticking to every single detail of Baum’s elaborate description of the place probably wouldn’t make a very readable image, so I tried not to do anything that deviated from the text too much, and focused on what I saw as the most important aspects: shining stone and metal and general opulence, a sense of total otherness from every previous location, and some shops and people walking around. Also a sort of sterility makes sense, in light of the characters’ experiences in the city and discoveries about it. A kind of interesting paradox I’m figuring out: if an illustration is to serve the story, it isn’t always the best thing for it to illustrate every single detail as written in the text.
I penciled and inked the final drawing at 8 by 12 inches– I pencil very loosely because I don’t like things looking too neat, usually. The inks are done with india ink and G-nib, which I have really only started using with this project and I like it a lot.
Inks are cleaned and colors are done in Photoshop in several layers: flat colors to designate everything its “local” color, and then one Multiply layer for general shadowy stuff, and then a few layers of soft light, hard light, overlay, or any other sort of thing to be tweaked endlessly until I am sick of it. This version is adjusted a bit from the previous one and I think it looks a little better! I will probably mess with it again.
A couple more chapter illos will show the City, so we’ll see a bit more of it. And it is really fun to draw, so I am looking forward to that!
Did you know! I have a new book out!
Many other people than me have illustrated the Wonderful Wizard of Oz! Here are some of them.
W. W. Denslow illustrated the first edition of the book, and set up a look for the characters and setting so iconic and inextricable from the text that they’ve informed most later interpretations, and the two co-held the book’s copyright. Denslow’s background in cartooning is clear in the illustrations, which are dynamic and personable and look more modern than they are, I think.
The Folio Society published an edition of the book illustrated by Sara Ogilvie recently. I really love the texture and simple treatment of color in these, and the design of the book and slipcase is just absurdly fancy, which is good.
Spanish illustrator Juliá Sardà did a series of lush painted illustrations for the book, which I only just found. They seem to be for a print edition but I dunno?
An edition illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger was published in the 90s. This was the only edition I’d seen when I started this project, and I really love it. Zwerger’s illustrations are all watercolor, and emphasize a dreamy distance that I think can be read into the text. Much less character-focused and dynamic than a lot of interpretations, but I think that’s ok. Also the book came with a pair of green glasses to wear while reading the Emerald City parts which is a VERY COOL IDEA. It’s out of print but there’s a lot more art here.
There are many more. It’s fun to see how many distinct angles can be taken with illustrating this text– it’s written in a way that’s kind of loose and mythic. I’ve tried to support what I feel is important in the story with my own illustrations, and have ended up emphasizing my own personal angle on the text. I am running a Kickstarter to publish my own illustrated version. Did you see that I’m doing that
The Wizard of Oz Illustrated book got mentioned in a Kickstarter newsletter yesterday, so it’s BLOWN UP over the past day and all of the stretch goals I’d initially put up have been passed! I gotta come up with MORE now!
So this book will have foil stamping on the cover, a ribbon bookmark, and art on the endpapers. what else though!
thank you everyone. Only a few days left!
Hi! The Wizard of Oz book I illustrated is available online now, if you weren’t aware, and holiday shipping deadlines are closing in!
happy holidays to youuuuu
The Kickstarter for the book has LAUNCHED!
Here’s a recap of the chapter illustrations for chapters 1 through 8 of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the first third of the book! I am very happy with these, and the wide range of color schemes and tones they represent.
I will be done with this project fairly soon, after working on it (off and on) for over a year. 24 full-page illustrations like these, and somewhere around 70 spot illustrations. A print book is being thought of; details will be on this blog before they’ll be anywhere else!
“Let me have your name, and I will ask Glinda if she will receive you.” They told who they were, and the girl soldier went into the Castle. After a few moments she came back to say that Dorothy and the others were to be admitted at once.
This is the Chapter 23 illustration, though maybe it pertains a little better to the end of chapter 22. Wrapping up the journey through Oz, finally!
I have a couple more illustrations to post, and will be launching a Kickstarter for the Oz book (with Make that Thing, friends who are good at production & fulfillment) in the near future.
In the center of the chair was an enormous Head, without a body to support it or any arms or legs whatever. There was no hair upon this head, but it had eyes and a nose and mouth, and was much bigger than the head of the biggest giant.
Each of the incarnations of Oz gets its own little spot illustration, to be posted over the next couple days.
Witches & Wizards of Oz: the Good Witch of the North, one of the Wizard of Oz’ incarnations, the Wicked Witch of the West, and Glinda the Good Witch of the South.
Kickstarter for the illustrated edition is moving right along! We’ll probably make goal in the next day or two? Thank you everyone so much!