Retelling Red
A short illustration project that experiments with texture in digital art and putting a grim spin on a classic tale.
What
This is a four page illustration project that explores the classic tale of “Little Red Riding Hood” through a more grim, realistic lens. Inspiration from modern children’s storybook illustrators, like Jon Klassen, influenced the texture and style of the digital illustrations.
Why
During my time at university, I took part in an illustration elective. One project challenged students to retell old takes in four frames that encompassed the story as much as possible. The medium and final format of the project was up to the students to decide.
How
When thinking about what kind of story I wanted to retell, I recalled an old children’s storybook that held a variety of classic tales. In particular, as a kid, I was drawn to the story of “Little Red Riding Hood” due to the detail put in to the the forest scenes. Thus, putting my own spin on “Little Red Riding Hood” seemed like the most exciting choice for me.
To achieve this illustration style, I used Procreate to block out important shapes and applied various clipping layers to carefully color, blend, and shade to create a water color effect on top of cut paper. I was inspired to do this after watching a YouTube video about Jon Klassen using Photoshop and tailored brushes to achieve his striking style of illustration.
The final project is completely digital, including the booklet mockups. However, I saw this as an opportunity to play with the accompanying text, having it read more like an expressive script than a normal children’s storybook. This allowed for increased dramatics in the text that mirror the richness of the illustrations.
