A Conversation with the Designer!

I was very lucky to contact the illustrator Sarah Gibb, who is essentially my designer. Despite her busy schedule she was able to answer a few questions. It was really helpful and insightful for my project.
Here is the emailed interview:

              Was there anything particular that inspired/influenced you when illustrating the story? 

Many things inspired me as I'm a very visual person and I love looking at design everywhere. Most importantly I love the silhouettes of Jan Pienowski and Aurthur Rackham and I love Angela Barret's illustrations style. 

            Would you place the story and it's characters at a particular time in history? And if yes, did the         

             clothing of that time influence you?

I wanted the illustrations to have a classic fairy tale quality and so most of the characters are wearing clothes from the 1800's. I chose this era as the clothes are so decorative and pretty.

The princess however has a more timeless quality as I wanted to distinguish her from the other more opulent characters in the story. Her clothing is deliberately more modern as she's quite a modern Princess.

              Focusing just on the Princess, I see her general shape as being more classic and non-definitive in

              terms of placing it in history, would you agree? Do you see this as a tool in creating the character,

              of a princess who has no kingdom?

Yes, I definitely agree, as i said before she's actually in much more modern dress. It's shorter because she's a more practical and down to earth character.

             What was your motivation for portraying the characters silhouetted at some points? (One of my       

              absolute favourite parts!)

I've always loved silhouettes as they're so magical. You can say so much about a character in silhouette from their stance, decorative clothing and expression but in a relatively simple way.

I've included silhouettes as I'm intrigued by the magical timeless quality of them. And from a design point of view silhouetes are very strong and bold so they add contrast to a picture book.

              For the character of The Princess, are there any adjectives you would use to describe her 

              costume? (Maybe like soft, delicate, bold, ect)

Erm....lacy, quirky,soft, pretty, sexy

              Do you create any of your designs digitally or mostly by hand?

Mostly digitally now. I generally do a drawing in paint and then scan it in and add or take away bits on the computer. I work in layers, starting with a background and then add more and more elements until I've got a composition I like. Then I'll go back into the aw and add detail and decorative elements.

Thank you Sarah!