I illustrated The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum! You can buy it in print here. Rice Boy Comics / Patreon
The Cowardly Lion was much pleased to hear that the Wicked Witch had been melted by a bucket of water, and Dorothy at once unlocked the gate of his prison and set him free. They went in together to the castle, where Dorothy’s first act was to call all the Winkies together and tell them that they were no longer slaves.
Chapter 13! Dorothy triumphant! I loved drawing all of these Winkies. One more chapter takes place in Winkie-land, so I get to develop it a little more, and then we’re back to the City and then to the south. Over halfway done with the illustrations.
Now the Wicked Witch of the West had but one eye, yet that was as powerful as a telescope, and could see everywhere. So, as she sat in the door of her castle, she happened to look around and saw Dorothy lying asleep, with her friends all about her.
Finally we get to some dramatically different Oz vistas! As usual there’s not a ton to go on as far as specific descriptions in the text, but I tried to develop an architectural style that’s distinct and works with the designs for the Witch and the Winkies, and stick to the yellow color-scheme Winkie-land is given.
Pretty happy with this one. One more chapter opener takes place in Winkie-land, and then we’re off.
The four travelers walked up to the great gate of Emerald City and rang the bell. After ringing several times, it was opened by the same Guardian of the Gates they had met before.
“What! are you back again?” he asked, in surprise.
And we’re back! I just finished the first half of my webcomic Vattu and I’m taking a break on updating that for a month; one of the (several) things I’ll be working on in that time is the Wizard of Oz project! Halfway done; expect more soon.
I skipped ahead for this one because I wanted to draw more Emerald City stuff (previously). This is Chapter 15, when Dorothy and friends return to the City from Winkie-land.
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!
It was, indeed, a great yellow Wildcat, and the Woodman thought it must be chasing something, for its ears were lying close to its head and its mouth was wide open, showing two rows of ugly teeth, while its red eyes glowed like balls of fire.
Opener for Chapter 9! This is an unusual one: they’re off the road and separated from the Lion, and it starts abruptly with the wildcat and the mouse. The red haze in the distance is the poppy field from Chapter 8.
Did you know I have a new book out? It’s the first book of my fantasy adventure comic Vattu and I am pretty pleased with it. Also a few originals lately, and more to come. Holding onto the Oz originals until the book is done, though!
See you soon! Might try to get some spot illustrations done in the next few days.
The road was smooth and well paved, now, and the country about was beautiful, so that the travelers rejoiced in leaving the forest far behind, and with it the many dangers they had met in its gloomy shades.
This was a fun one. Chapter 10! Still going out of order, a little. These are the outskirts of the Emerald City, where everything is green. Green is a hugely frustrating color to work with and I have no idea if this even looks right; I might tweak it in future… and I’m allowing myself some yellow/gold for the Emerald City scenes, because why not.
I want the different peoples of Oz to have different consistent architectural styles. Munchkins build domed, slightly naturalistic buildings; Emerald City folks build harsh geometric spires; Winkies (eventually) build jagged, stalagmitic things.
Excited to get to the city, but probably doing chapter 9 first.
To be sure, the broad river now cut them off from this beautiful land. But the raft was nearly done, and after the Tin Woodman had cut a few more logs and fastened them together with wooden pins, they were ready to start.
The Chapter 8 intro illustration is finished! I’m going slightly out of order because the starting points for 7 and 9 are kind of bland, and I need to figure out something to say with those illustrations in the meantime. I’ve been swamped and chipping away at this one for a while; it’s a relief to finally move forward on this project again.
This is the first full-page we’ve seen of the whole group together!!
There were few birds in this part of the forest, for birds love the open country where there is plenty of sunshine. But now and then there came a deep growl from some wild animal hidden among the trees. These sounds made the little girl’s heart beat fast, for she did not know what made them; but Toto knew, and he walked close to Dorothy’s side, and did not even bark in return.
Chapter 6 illustration. I’m trying to make each one have a unique palette; we’ll see how well I can stick to that.
When Dorothy awoke the sun was shining through the trees and Toto had long been out chasing birds around him and squirrels. She sat up and looked around her. Scarecrow, still standing patiently in his corner, waiting for her.
Chapter 5 opening illustration!!! The Tin Woodman’s abandoned cottage.
