Peter Pan painting for a friend - washable marker, pen, brush and ink.
 W is for "web," as in Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. Wilbur couldn't hope for a more brilliant, true friend. I wanted to try out a pen and ink illustration with colored ink.
In a mix of blue and black ink, this is Jim Hawkins hiding in the nearly empty apple barrel, overhearing nefarious plans. I really enjoyed reading Treasure Island. It's a great adventure story, although I really wish that the only female character (Jim's mom) didn't faint at the first sign of a pirate.
S is for The Secret Garden by Frances Hodges Burnett. I loved this book and read it more than once as a kid.
 R is for "Rat" from The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahame, specifically Chapter 9: "Wayfarers All." When I read this book for the first time, I happened to read a copy that didn't have illustrations, and I think this is a novel that definitely benefits from them.
Today's illustration is from The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald. Princess Irene is looking at her starry ceiling, with no idea of the horrible goblins in the caverns beneath her mountain. This novel is pretty much a fairy tale in style and scope. My only issue with it (and it's a small one, probably to be expected from a fairy tale type book) is that all of the forces for good are beautiful while the evil creatures (goblins) are hideous. It makes me wonder what would change in a similar story if the forces for good were hideous on the outside but beautiful on the inside, while the evil characters were pretty to look at but hideous on the inside. I guess that would be the story told from a goblin's point of view...
 I'm sure this probably isn't the image most people think of when they think of Neverland from J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan. It's a scene that, to my knowledge, has never been included in a film version. It comes from a line in chapter 1 about how each of the Darling kids has his own version of Neverland:
"Of course the Neverlands vary a good deal. John's for instance, had a lagoon with flamingoes flying over it at which John was shooting, while Michael, who was very small, had a flamingo with lagoons flying over it." (p. 14 Barrie, J.M. Peter Pan. New York: Penguin Books. 2002.)  This is Pippi in her blue dress with red patches just before she meets Annika and Tommy in chapter 1 of The Adventures of Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgrin. (I wanted shoes with brushes on them when I read it as a kid, and as an adult, if floors have to be clean, I still think that would be the most fun way.)
 The scene is from chapter 1, when the wolves gather at Council Rock, and Mowgli plays with pebbles, oblivious while the tiger Shere Khan tries to claim him as his own. I wanted to do this illustration in black and white - and I used pen and ink and marker for this illustration (different from the others I've posted so far). I thought this might help the grey wolves look more ghost like /other worldly in the night.
 E is for Emerald City, from L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz, where everything is green because everyone has to wear green glasses.
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Melissa Tison
I'm an aspiring author / illustrator. Archives
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