Cristiana Radu
Why do Witches Fly on Brooms (and Ten Other Fantastical Questions)

Image Type: Single Image

Usage: Inside illustration in an illustrated book.

Process: I have first used acrylic for the background and I protected the garden area with duct tape. Afterwards I have painted this white area with watercolour and coloured pencils.

Materials: Acrylic, watercolour, coloured pencils, thick paper (Sennelier Hot pressed 300g).

Formats: The format of the drawing is 51 x 36 cm. The illustration is intended to cover a double page in the book. On the left there is only a painted background for the text to be put on it.

Brief Requirements: To illustrate a children’s book, where magical characters from classical tales are brought into nowadays. The book consists of several short stories, each one built around a funny question. Why do witches fly on brooms? Why do monsters not like sweets? What if Prince Charming gave up his magical horse for a car? What if elves went to school and study… maths? What if dragons tried to accommodate themselves in a block of flats? What happens to a frog who doesn’t get kissed by a princess? Children like to ask funny questions, so they deserve the most fanciful answers.

Key Brief Ideas: I was supposed to draw a witty and interactive book, starting from some odd questions children ask, a book which also encourages children to give, at their turn, their own answers to the questions and also to write and draw. I had to reinvent the magical characters from some classical tales – they had to be reinterpreted as contemporary characters, in a funny way. I get my inspiration from the lives of nowadays kids, particularly from those of my friends, and I even casted the ‘awful’ writing of one of them in the letter of the enamoured Zmeu (a sort of dragon, ogre from the Romanian folklore) to his love, the Dragoness.

Commissioner Company: Curtea Veche Publishing House

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