2021

Hansel & Gretel

Editorial Design, Illustration, & Art Direction

Perhaps because I wanted to eat an entire house or because I marveled at the cruelty of every adult in the story, Hansel and Gretel was one of my favorite stories growing up. Laying out and illustrating this classic, morbid tale allowed me to employ a wide array of my skills and passions: narrative, color, typography, historical research, and drawing. I chose an illustration style that alludes to early 20th century illustrations for children’s literature.

Working on this solo with occasional input from my husband, I learned that I would love to work with a creative writer on a project like this to update the language and adapt the story more cleanly with the illustrations. In my estimation, every project can be improved through collaboration. Overall, this was a fun project that would be a joy to see in real life one day.

Made with Adobe InDesign CC, Adobe Photoshop CC, colored pencils, ink

The Process

Much went into the development of illustrations and exploration of materials and fonts. Highlighted here are detailed views of illustrations used to illuminate the story in my rendering.

The Outcome

Ultimately, I mocked up a complete layout of one of my favorite fairy tales with details that weren’t in my childhood edits, adding further detail to the long folk history of these kinds of stories.