Not Ruby Slippers and a Slate--Oz pages 5 and 6

Hello lovelies! I finished the illustrations last night, but by the time I was done it was too dark to get a good photo, so I had to finish today. Here is a sneak peek:

This is one of my favourite parts of the story (you will hear me say that a lot!) It is the first part that really differs from the film. We start with the Munchkins and the Witch of the North.

That's right. You heard me --the North.

In the book the unnamed Witch of the North and Glinda the Witch of the South are two different witches. The 1939 film made Glinda the Witch of the North because "nothing good could come from the South." Apparently.

She and the Munchkins are described like this:

Three were men and one a woman, and all were oddly dressed. They wore round hats that rose to a small point a foot above their heads, with little bells around the brims that tinkled sweetly as they moved. The hats of the men were blue; the little woman's hat was white, and she wore a white gown that hung in pleats from her shoulders. Over it were sprinkled little stars that glistened in the sun like diamonds. The men were dressed in blue, of the same shade as their hats, and wore well-polished boots with a deep roll of blue at the tops. The men, Dorothy thought, were about as old as Uncle Henry, for two of them had beards. But the little woman was doubtless much older. Her face was covered with wrinkles, her hair was nearly white, and she walked rather stiffly.

I chose the line  You are welcome, most noble Sorceress, to the land of the Munchkins. We are so grateful to you for having killed the Wicked Witch of the East, and for setting our people free from bondage as my anchor line. I wanted the shape of the house to reference the shape of the Munchkins with their tall pointy hats. If I could have figured out how to put some little jingly bells in the picture I would have! 

The story continues when the Wicked Witch of the East has turned to dust in the sun:

"She was so old," explained the Witch of the North, "that she dried up quickly in the sun. That is the end of her. But the silver shoes are yours, and you shall have them to wear." She reached down and picked up the shoes, and after shaking the dust out of them handed them to Dorothy.

I *really* love this attention to detail--shaking out the dead witch dust out of the shoes. Priceless. And did you notice SILVER shoes not RUBY? The silver shoes became the ruby slippers in the 1939 film because Technicolour was in its infancy and red showed up much better on screen. Fact of the day.  

That's why I wanted to recreate this scene as it had both book and film ties. I used some fancy paper in blue (of course because each country of Oz has a different colour--Munchkins are blue, Winkies are yellow, Quadlings are red and Gillikins are purple) and painted through the quote with some iridescent water colour paint. 

For the next picture I used this scene (definitely NOT from the film) as my  inspiration.

As for the little old woman, she took off her cap and balanced the point on the end of her nose, while she counted "One, two, three" in a solemn voice. At once the cap changed to a slate, on which was written in big, white chalk marks:

"LET DOROTHY GO TO THE CITY OF EMERALDS"

I wanted to to make the background referred to both the white gown that was sprinkled with little stars that glistened in the sun like diamonds and the fact that her face was covered with wrinkles. 

I glued on scrunched up white tissue paper (which is harder than it looks) and then when it was dry, I covered it with a wash of iridescent silver watercolour paint and a layer of silver glitter glue.  Sadly, the photo does not do it justice. But it really has a lovely textured appearance. The slight silver shimmer ties in really well with the silver shoes from the other illustration. 

Then I created a slate with some fancy paper that mimics wood and I wrote on some black card with a fat white crayon (which is also harder than it looks to write in cursive with a chunky crayon meant for a chubby toddler's fist.) 

Here are the pages side by side:

I am so pleased with how it is coming out. Stay tuned for some more silver shoes and a yellow brick road.