In the same vein as last week’s post, this week draws upon my own university experience. Instead of just hearing from one of my classmates this time though, we will be hearing from 6!

For our latest brief, my class at DJCAD were asked to create a collaborative zine. The riso-printed zine would tell the classic story of Hansel and Gretel. Everyone – including our tutor – was given a section of the original text to reimagine. We had 2 weeks to create a black and white, A5 illustration to sit opposite our text. The added challenge of having to include half-tone shading within our artwork was thrown in to keep us on our toes and give the book a cohesive aesthetic.

The pages of our collaborative zine

As soon as the briefing was over, everyone started comparing who got what part of the story. We wanted to know who was getting the chance to illustrate evil witches and candy houses, and who would be drawing bread. In the end it turned out the interesting parts of text were both a blessing and curse. While there was more to inspire you, there was also more to try and cram in to just one, single small image.

Illustration by Greg McIndoe

Artwork by Greg McIndoe

My section of the text included a dark conversation between the mother and father. Hansel and Gretel had just returned after their parent’s first attempt to abandon them, and the mother was convincing the father that they must try again, but this time take them deeper into the woods so they couldn’t return.

As the mother takes centre stage in the extract, she was my main focus. Looking into the history and theories surrounding the character, I found that some believed the mother was also the witch who appears later in the story. Starting to draw, I conjured up an evil, witch-mother character made of leaves. My aim was to portray the idea that she was one with the forest and spanned the entirety of it’s ground and the story. I added in some halftone – as pattern rather than shading – and my illustration was complete.

The images the class created varied greatly, not just in context but in concept and style. And as this was a collaborative project, it seems only right to include some of their perspectives in this post. I asked a group of my classmates how they approached the project and this is what they said…

Illustration by Nicole McLaughlin

Nicole McLaughlin | @nicoloctopus

In my part of the story, Hansel is comforting Gretel after they hear their mother plotting to leave them again. I really wanted to portray the idea that they rely on each and so decided to show their beds pushed together. In my illustration, Hansel’s clothes are all worn down whilst Gretel’s are all new, showing that he puts her first. I loved this project as it challenged me to create a piece in a way I never usually do. Not only was working with half-tone new to me but so was illustrating a full scene.

Artwork by Jagoda Sadowska

Illustration by Jagoda Sadowska

Jagoda Sadowska | @selfportraitinblue

Within one image, I tried to capture all of the significant moments from my part of the story. In my fragment of the fairytale, Hansel and Gretel have been lost in the massive forest for a couple of days, fall asleep under the trees and eventually find the Witch house.  I thought that, by simplifying the shapes and creating a flat perspective, I could include everything I wanted to portray without over complicating things. By turning everything into geometric forms and using halftones, I aimed to create an interesting balance within the images composition.

Illustration by Lola Knibb

Lola Knibb | @lola_knibb

Working on this project was thrilling! With these childhood memories of books rushing back to me, it was easy to come up with some good ideas. Starting with a few photos taken on a very helpful day trip to The Hermitage forest, I began sketching out thumbnails that included all the key elements from my given paragraph of the story. I then narrowed it down to a few of the most successful compositions. Finally, I added the halftones in my usual handmade way by tracing, cutting and gluing the pieces together. With a final tidy up on photoshop and it was done – ready for the Riso!

Artwork by Iain Smith

Illustration by Iain Smith

Iain Smith | @iainart

My approach was pretty simple. I drew up some sketches of the witch, Hansel, and Gretel to get their designs down. Thumbnails were drawn to emphasise the witch’s nose or at least make it a part of the piece. I settled with their silhouettes working a little gothic architecture with one main vertical figure and two smaller ones on either side. It feels balanced and humorous with the nose centring the composition. Once I’d settled with a thumbnail, I took a photo of it, and traced over it in Photoshop. I made my own brush to add some texture to the line. The half tones were set to mask the tones I blocked in so I could easily erase or add half tones where needed.

Illustration by Lucy Bowman

Lucy Bowman | @_lbart_

The scene that I was given struck me as very mundane. I wanted the style to counteract this and make it intriguing to the viewer. Using the pop art style, I aimed to include modern pop culture of today. I wanted to convey a couple with modern looking hairstyles and fashion. The half tone shading also added to the comic book style I was aiming for.

Artwork by Rebecca Smith

Illustration by Rebecca Smith

Rebecca Smith | @rebeccasillustration

In my section of the text, we find out the true intentions of the witch. My image illustrates the change from sweet old woman to evil witch. I took the most inspiration from the line “Witches have red eyes and cannot see very far, but they have a sense of smell like animals”. And for visual inspiration, I looked at the use of shadow in movies like ‘The Princess And The Frog’, and Tim Burton’s ‘Vincent’. In my illustration, the shadow represents what the witch is really like whilst the innocent old lady shows what she fools the children into believing she is.

The final page of our collaborative zine, designed by our tutor Tommy Perman