Here's (above) part of the cover of a recent kids book, "Where is the Cake?" by T. T. Khing. Cartoonists who read this are going to think I'm nuts for posting about it because the color and cartooning in the book are pretty weak. Believe me, I'm aware of that, but I'm going to ask you to ignore that and concentrate instead on what the artist does well, which is imaginative topography.
Take a look at that forest. Look at how small and densely-packed the trees are. Notice how it's simultaneously attractive and frightening. There really are forests like this; in fact, I live near an orange grove that's like that. This whole book is a celebration of the concept of miniature forests.
BTW, note the size of the house, which is perfectly in sync with the size of the forest. It's hardly bigger than a tool shed. The artist rightly perceives that this is the correct size for houses in tiny forests. Extra rooms should be underground where they don't get in the way. The outdoor table and chair are great additions.
 |
Here's another view of the tiny forest. The trees are made to snake along the ground in undulating ribbons separated by grass and narrow pathways. The artist had a great landscaping idea here, and someone should make it happen for real, right away. |
 |
It looks like the artist means to depict hedges here, but I prefer to imagine that the plants are more of the same small trees that we saw in the pictures above. It's fun to think of irregular rows of orange trees punctuated by quiet little meadows. The foreground boulders are a nice contrast, and so are the tall cucumber-like trees. So is the little creek. Creeks are naturally much more common than we suppose. Almost every big city used to be criss-crossed with them, but nowadays they're paved over, diverted, and pumped out. Maybe we should bring some of them back. |
7 comments:
I love mini forests.
Creeks are really fantastic, especially for growing up. There's a creek (not sure if it's naturally occurring or not- there are definitely some things added to it, metal tunnels to take it beneath the roads, etc.) that runs behind a church near my house, and I spent a lot of time there as a kid, messing around and catching salamanders and tadpoles and such. I even got my mom to cook me an unusually large (for suburban creeks/drainage ditches) crawdad I caught there.
I love the way the dark spaces behind the trunks draw you into the woods.
If we had more miniforests & greenbelts, we could redeem the creeks. With the run-off from all the pavement, they're needed even more as flood control ditches.
Lower Manhattan used to be full of creeks and hills. When they built the tenements of 5 Points, the buildings were on soggy ground that used to be creek beds, filled in for construction. It was truly adding insult to injury. Staten Island construction today often utilizes wet lands, which makes the streets of South and Midland beach especially flood during storms.
I just realized what this style of illustration reminds me of! Highlights magazine!
Jorge: This is a kind of generic illustration style for modern kid books, though this artist has original ideas to convey.
And Highlights? I never heard of it and had too google it. What do you think of that magazine?
Ben, Pappy, Fried: I used to know a couple whose toddler drowned in a creek that was only a few inches deep.
Highlights Magazine was the best educational kid's magazine when I was a kid. I just googled it and was none too impressed with the current artwork (I had no idea it was still running,) but back when I was a kid I'd spend hours reading the free books we got in school each month. That and "Chickadee" magazine.
They did things like the old Mad Magazine crowd comics, except they'd hide hidden items into the negative spaces of the artwork, which you had to find. It was an interactive games and activities format, and was one of the foremost influence on me and how I looked at art when I was younger.
I don't know if it's a Canadian only thing, though. I've seen it references by Canadian characters on American sitcoms like How I Met Your Mother, so it might have been a joke on Canadians. I think you'd have liked it.
Post a Comment