Week 2a: My Project Brief

For my long-term project, I have decided to do an ebook of illustrations based on the Japanese fairy tale The Cat's Elopement. Here is a short selection for the story to give some idea of how it goes:

"Once upon a time there lived a cat of marvellous beauty, with a skin as soft and shining as silk, and wise green eyes, that could see even in the dark. His name was Gon, and he belonged to a music teacher, who was so fond and proud of him that he would not have parted with him for anything in the world.

Now not far from the music master's house there dwelt a lady who possessed a most lovely little pussy cat called Koma. She was such a little dear altogether, and blinked her eyes so daintily, and ate her supper so tidily, and when she had finished she licked her pink nose so delicately with her little tongue, that her mistress was never tired of saying, 'Koma, Koma, what should I do without you?'

Well, it happened one day that these two, when out for an evening stroll, met under a cherry tree, and in one moment fell madly in love with each other. Gon had long felt that it was time for him to find a wife, for all the ladies in the neighbourhood paid him so much attention that it made him quite shy; but he was not easy to please, and did not care about any of them. 

Now, before he had time to think, Cupid had entangled him in his net, and he was filled with love towards Koma. She fully returned his passion, but, like a woman, she saw the difficulties in the way, and consulted sadly with Gon as to the means of overcoming them. Gon entreated his master to set matters right by buying Koma, but her mistress would not part from her. Then the music master was asked to sell Gon to the lady, but he declined to listen to any such suggestion, so everything remained as before..."

Basically, the story is about two cats who fall in love, but have trouble being together due to their owners, so they elope. They face conflict and are separated, but reunite.

I find this story to be charming and I also have a connection to cats, as I have always loved them, even when I was very young. I think the story would make a nice children's book. I also would like to use this story to help develop and work on a style of illustrating. I am not sure how to describe the style, but I will be using a lot of textured brushes to achieve it. I suppose it will almost be like a watercolor, but done digitally. Here are some inspirational images:

I am also considering rewriting the story to shorten it, or perhaps at least to bring the wording into a modern context. I think I will do a total of 8 illustrations, each one will probably be about 4.5x7 and the ebook itself will be 8.5x11, thus giving each illustration a 2" white border. I might actually make it larger so that the illustration is 6x8 and the overall book is 10x12.

Before I do anything, I really need to nail down the style. Although I don't think this is exactly the direction I will be headed, here is a preliminary character sketch for Koma and Gon:

Koma is based on a ragdoll cat for right now, and Gon is a black cat with green eyes. I am contemplating making Koma a white cat with blue eyes instead, because then when they are together, it is like yin and yang, which I think adds to the story symbolically. Either way, I really need to practice stylistic cats more.