John Martz

Cross-posted from Picture Book Report

These two very old people are the father and mother of Mr. Bucket. Their names are Grandpa Joe and Grandma Josephine. And these two very old people are the father and mother of Mr.s Bucket. Their names are Grandpa George and Grandma Georgina.
This is Mr. Bucket. This is Mrs. Bucket. Mr. and Mrs. Bucket have a small boy whose name is Charlie Bucket.
This is Charlie.
How d’you do? And how d’you do? And how do d’you do again?
He is pleased to meet you.
The whole of this family — the six grownups (count them) and little Charlie Bucket — live together in a small wooden house on the edge of a great town.
Their house wasn’t nearly large enough for so many people, and life was extremely uncomfortable for them all. There were only two rooms in the place altogether and there was only one bed. The bed was given to the four old grandparents because they were so old and tired. They were so tired, they never got out of it.

And so begins my take on Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The book was a favourite growing up. I read it, along with its sequel and Dahl’s The Twits countless times. And as much as I loved (and still love) Roald Dahl’s, half of the enjoyment of his books was always due to the inimitable illustrations of Quentin Blake. He is one tough act to follow.
This series of illustrations will be a little different than my Hitchhiker’s Guide pieces. I’m sticking with a limited palette, and my compositions will be inspired by comics (even if they don’t necessarily read as comics). It’s difficult to decide which images from the book to isolate, so this layout allows me to do a series of spot illustrations all tied together into one picture.

In the town itself, actually within sight of the house in which Charlie lived, there was an ENORMOUS CHOCOLATE FACTORY!
…
Twice a day, on this way to and from school, little Charlie Bucket had to walk right past the gates of the factory. And every time he went by, he would begin to walk very, very slowly, and he would hold his nose high in the air and take long deep sniffs of gorgeous chocolatey smell all around him.

I am aching to draw the scenes in which the various horrible children suffer their fates in the depths of the factory. Luckily, however, there are still a good number of scenes before we even are introduced to Mr. Wonka, which allows me more time to work on his character design, and his accompanying band of Oompa Loompas. I promise there will be no inspiration gleaned from Tim Burton’s version.

These two very old people are the father and mother of Mr. Bucket. Their names are Grandpa Joe and Grandma Josephine. And these two very old people are the father and mother of Mr.s Bucket. Their names are Grandpa George and Grandma Georgina.

This is Mr. Bucket. This is Mrs. Bucket. Mr. and Mrs. Bucket have a small boy whose name is Charlie Bucket.

This is Charlie.

How d’you do? And how d’you do? And how do d’you do again?

He is pleased to meet you.

The whole of this family — the six grownups (count them) and little Charlie Bucket — live together in a small wooden house on the edge of a great town.

Their house wasn’t nearly large enough for so many people, and life was extremely uncomfortable for them all. There were only two rooms in the place altogether and there was only one bed. The bed was given to the four old grandparents because they were so old and tired. They were so tired, they never got out of it.

And so begins my take on Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The book was a favourite growing up. I read it, along with its sequel and Dahl’s The Twits countless times. And as much as I loved (and still love) Roald Dahl’s, half of the enjoyment of his books was always due to the inimitable illustrations of Quentin Blake. He is one tough act to follow.

This series of illustrations will be a little different than my Hitchhiker’s Guide pieces. I’m sticking with a limited palette, and my compositions will be inspired by comics (even if they don’t necessarily read as comics). It’s difficult to decide which images from the book to isolate, so this layout allows me to do a series of spot illustrations all tied together into one picture.

In the town itself, actually within sight of the house in which Charlie lived, there was an ENORMOUS CHOCOLATE FACTORY!

…

Twice a day, on this way to and from school, little Charlie Bucket had to walk right past the gates of the factory. And every time he went by, he would begin to walk very, very slowly, and he would hold his nose high in the air and take long deep sniffs of gorgeous chocolatey smell all around him.

I am aching to draw the scenes in which the various horrible children suffer their fates in the depths of the factory. Luckily, however, there are still a good number of scenes before we even are introduced to Mr. Wonka, which allows me more time to work on his character design, and his accompanying band of Oompa Loompas. I promise there will be no inspiration gleaned from Tim Burton’s version.

Sep 12, 2010