Luna and the Moon Rabbit
When I was little (and up until I went to University) I had an albino rabbit called Snowball. He was a ball of white fluff with pink eyes and even though he wasn't the cuddliest of bunnies I adored him. So much that the first thing we did when we bought our current house (our first with a garden) I asked for a pet rabbit for my Christmas. So when I was asked to take part in the blog tour for 'Luna and the Moon Rabbit' by Camille Whitcher I knew I was about to fall in love with another white rabbit with pink eyes.
Luna and the Moon Rabbit has definitely captured my heart. A story inspired by Asian folklore and the films of Studio Ghibli, this is a magical book about Luna who befriends the giant rabbit who lives in the moon. And the embark on a night-time adventure together. With a dreamy feel to the illustrations this book is a soothing bedtime story that will send little ones to sleep with a little bit of magic in their dreams.
As part of the blog tour, Camille is going to share some sketches with us showing how she brought to life her very own white rabbit with pink eyes. Over to Camille...
Hi! Today I'm going to do a small show and tell of how 'Luna and the Moon Rabbit' was developed. The images here are from my time developing 'Luna and the Moon Rabbit' on my master's degree with some comparative images as they are in the book.
I started off by playing around with different media and different images that came to mind. I wasn't too focused on a coherent story at first.
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| ink painting - figuring out how the rabbit shape might be seen on the moon |
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| brush pen drawing - early Luna |
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| ink and pastel sketch - early Moon Rabbit |
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| ink and pencil drawing - The initial idea was that the Moon Rabbit would come down when there was a new moon - the moon not being visible meant he could have some time off. However, this started to get complicated as I also wanted there to be a connection to the harvest moon which is full. Also, this image was confusing as some thought it mean she’d been asleep throughout all the moon phases! |
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| pen and pencil drawing - I wanted to show the rabbit actually coming down to Earth. This clashed with the reveal later on of him at Luna’s window so it was cut. |
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| pencil - I liked this sketch but decided that it would be more interesting for Moon Rabbit not to be revealed quite yet so cut him out in the final. |
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| the final artwork from the book |
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| Moon Rabbit - More human-like or more rabbit-like? |
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| More rabbit-like in the book. |
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| Early idea for the cover with old working title. |
This is just a snippet of how many experiments and changes were involved in making ‘Luna and the Moon Rabbit’. I found the hardest part was making decisions - how the characters should look, how to compose the images, which scenes needed to included or deleted etc. At some point I had to just make the decision and stick with it. I’m pleased with how it turned out ;-)
Thanks to Camille Whitcher for this fascinating journey into how this book came to life. We read this at bedtime and it filled my heart to think that BookBairn might go to sleep dreaming of a rabbit like my childhood friend. Thanks for this wonderful gift of a story.
Happy Reading,
Mummy and BookBairn (and BookBunny)
Disclaimer: This book was sent to us for free in exchange for our review and joining the blog tour. Words and opinions expressed here are my own - I mean you wouldn't make up having a pet rabbit like Snowball if it wasn't your own words, right? x
What a lovely book and the sketches are great #readwithme
ReplyDeleteFascinating to see how it comes together!
DeleteI find it fascinating how artists develop their work. This looks like a great book. Snowball may have been small but he had a lot of character.
ReplyDeleteYes he did - I loved how he could open a cereal box to get his food!
DeleteAaaa this looks utterly adorable and how amazing are those sketches!! Thanks for sharing with #readwithme
ReplyDeleteThanks! Lovely to see how the book was created!
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