Pinocchio - The Fox and Cat

I was working on some storybook ideas for my portfolio and decided to produce a series of illustrations based on Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. I've never read the book before but I've seen the Disney movie a couple of times and I always thought it was one of the best children's stories, mainly because it was so creepy. Well if Disney had faithfully adapted the original book most kid's would be suffering from nightmares from the bizarre imagery and adult themes like death, violence, greed and power.

Each illustration was to stand alone but I wanted a recurring theme to run through them. I decided to dismiss the backgrounds and focus on the characters with a border around the edges that represents their surroundings.

The Fox and Cat.
In Collodi's book The Fox and Cat are con-artists posing as infirm beggars. However unlike the all singing all dancing Disney versions this Fox and Cat are not above robbery and ultimately murder.

I tightened up the rough pencils with some ink to lend some weight to the outline. After adding the flat colours, shades and shadows I started the framing border. The Fox and Cat abduct Pinocchio and take him into the forrest ( to ultimately hang him), so the border had to symbolise the wild nature of the forrest.

I scanned some dried brush strokes and scratched card textures and added them. Then after playing with the hues and colour balance it's got that dark decayed look to represent that all is not quite right with Pinocchio's new friends.