Spot illustrations from “the Dainty China Country.”
I drew (I think) the last of the spot illustrations yesterday, and there are 63 of them! So 87 total pictures in the book. There might be a little more too; I’m considering making some quiet little “epilogue” pictures showing where the different characters are said in Chapter 23 to end up.
Hey I’ll be at SPX this weekend, if you’re in the environs of DC!
Before them was a great stretch of country having a floor as smooth and shining and white as the bottom of a big platter. Scattered around were many houses made entirely of china and painted in the brightest colors. These houses were quite small, the biggest of them reaching only as high as Dorothy’s waist. There were also pretty little barns, with china fences around them; and many cows and sheep and horses and pigs and chickens, all made of china, were standing about in groups.
Chapter 20, on the way south. This one is a weird one; one of the little episodes that feels kind of out-of-place and begins and ends abruptly. Very fun intricate drawing that took forever!!
I’ve been posting Oz stuff on the Patreon a bit earlier than here, if you’re interested!
I started a Patreon! If you’d be interested in pledging a coupla bucks a month, it would be just lovely, and you’d have access to as much sketchbook stuff and pre-release art as I can get to you. I don’t think there’s ever been a platform like this before, and it presents a very exciting opportunity for people with weird jobs like myself!
I will not put Vattu or any major work behind a paywall. I am committed to making much of my work available for free. Patreon allows you to support my work if you’d like, but it’s personally and professionally important to me that you can read it without paying anything, too!
I don’t really know what to expect, but I have some cool things it would allow me to do, if it does well enough. The first one is the Rice Boy Rerun Blog, which I’ve mentioned before…
Thank you so much for reading!
- Evan
The Kickstarter for the book has LAUNCHED!
Illustrations for chapters 9 through 16 of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. 1 through 8 are here. Eight more to go!!! Posting them here a couple of times a week.
Also did you see I put up a new sketchbook on Gumroad? This one has a bunch of Oz-related stuff. The full collection is available too.
(also I have exciting book-related things to say soon)
Ok bye!
Art I made for a possible cover (probably will be something different now), and a similar drawing I did way early on working out what the characters would look like.
You will remember there was no road–not even a pathway–between the castle of the Wicked Witch and the Emerald City. When the four travelers went in search of the Witch she had seen them coming, and so sent the Winged Monkeys to bring them to her. It was much harder to find their way back through the big fields of buttercups and yellow daisies than it was being carried. They knew, of course, they must go straight east, toward the rising sun; and they started off in the right way.
Always tricky to find something compositionally interesting to do with these “walking in a direction” chapters. Happy with this one though, and it’s the chronologically first time we’ll see everybody in their New Outfits. I like big meaningful costume changes and it’s something I pay a huge amount of attention to in my own work (or I guess the work that is more fully mine, let’s say).
I’m also working lately on some mockups for the cover of this thing. More as situation develops.
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!
They were obliged to camp out that night under a large tree in the forest, for there were no houses near. The tree made a good, thick covering to protect them from the dew, and the Tin Woodman chopped a great pile of wood with his axe and Dorothy built a splendid fire that warmed her and made her feel less lonely. She and Toto ate the last of their bread, and now she did not know what they would do for breakfast.
Going waayyy back to the chapter illustration I skipped a while ago, chapter 7. Color here is a little more naturalistic than I’ve been tending to do for this project, but I’m very happy with it!
I love CAMPING!
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.
The revelation of the real Wizard of Oz, and his rewards for the Woodman, the Scarecrow, and the Lion. These are from chapter 16; I skipped ahead a bit.