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)