Butterfly Man
from The Prince of Butterflies

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Comments

Showing the book dummy to my college students, when I got to this spread, some of them mentioned nervously, "This is for a children's book?"  Working on this one and the Butterfly Eyes, I really wanted to make my young audience feel a little nervous. (Notice the difference in palette and effect between the above, The Cover and The Return.)  I think there is a tendency in children's books to water down the impact of a story by avoiding anxiety and fear.  (Which is where a lot of drama resides) I kept thinking about a Maurice Sendak quote where he said something to the effect that children like to be scared...but only while they are sitting in the safety of someone's lap.  

 

The other reason for setting up the anxiety is for the payoff in the next image---where he takes flight as a butterfly---and to make it feel more colorful and joyful I made this one a little darker and more ominous.

 

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