COVER ART

By Arnel Mirasol

It was at Cafe Breton in Greenbelt 3 (above) where the cover art for the book Long Ago and Far Away was selected. Tahanan Books publisher Reni Roxas invited me and her assistant there to discuss, over plates of delectable crepes, which illustration it would be. She asked us first our choices. Her assistant  (whose name escapes me now, but who could be Ginny Mata) chose, if I remember correctly, Rumpelstiltskin, while I chose Snow White and Rose Red. Reni jokingly scoffed at our choices, and said that the cover art should obviously be The Goose Girl (below), because this according to her is the most beautiful of the lot.

The Goose Girl, 2003, acrylic on paper, 11.2 X 14 inches, Reni Roxas collection

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Snow White and Rose Red, 2003, acrylic on paper, 11.2 X 14 inches, Marixi-Rufino-Prieto collection

Rumppelstiltskin, 2003, acrylic on paper, 11.2 X 14 inches, Frances Ong collection.

She's right, because the book (below) does indeed look splendid with the Goose Girl as cover art. Reni not only selected the Goose Girl as cover art for the book, she also added it to her growing collection of my works. She is one of my staunchest collectors. Let me list here the artworks she bought from me: Chun, China Harbor Scene, The Farmer and his Wife, The Wild Swans, The Goose Girl, Rapunzel, Dawn Duel, and The Imperialist Manifesto. Only her friends, Dr.Manolet Delfin and his wife Mari Tan, have a bigger collection of my works.

Incidentally, Rishma Cuerdo, my model for The Goose Girl and Snow White and Rose Red, was also my model for Waling-waling (below), which is one of the illustrations I did for Jun Matias' story Alamat ng Agila. 

THUMBELINA ILLUSTRATIONS

By Arnel Mirasol

My illustration, 2000, acrylic on paper, 10 X 12.5 inches; Mark Yap collection

Before I began my dream project of illustrating H.C. Andersen's fairy tales, publisher Reni Roxas lent me several imported picture books to inspire me. One of those books was Wayne Anderson's Thumbelina where the illustration below appeared. True enough - I was indeed so inspired by Anderson's illustration that I patterned my Thumbelina illustration (above)  for the book Once Upon a Time  after it : with the difference that I drew my figures "un-stylized", so to speak.  Anderson's  illustration is charmingly cartoony , while mine hewed more closely to realism. This was one of my illustrations that was so in-demand on the opening day of my solo show at the Crucible Gallery in 2001,  because  four art collectors wanted to buy it. It was eventually acquired by Mark Yap, who also bought my illustration for The Little Mermaid. 

By Wayne Anderson

Thumbelina had been illustrated by many illustrious artists, both past and present. The most notable ones in my opinion were those done by the British Wayne Anderson of course - and the  Russian Gennady Spirin, the Austrian Lisbeth Zwerger, and the Ukrainian Galya Zinko (below). 

By Gennady Spirin

By Lisbeth Zwerger

By Galya Zinko

Since it took me around three weeks to finish each illustration for Once Upon a Time (below), I completed the eleven illustrations for the book only after about a year. That's a veritable snail's pace, I would concede, especially when compared to other Filipino illustrators who can finish a book in one month. But I can't help it, being the obsessive-compulsive person that I am, who won't declare an artwork done until I saw it as already on a par with the works of the foreign illustrators I admire.

Once Upon a Time (a retelling of 10 H.C. Andersen fairy tales by Fran Ng, and published by Tahanan Books for Yong Readers)