We are back with the second of our Sink City posts, and if anything this collection is even more varied and surprising than the first. If you missed Part One, do scroll back and take a look, but for now, here are five more extraordinary interpretations of the same brief from students on our Illustrating Children’s Books Diploma Course.
Jon Cooper has created a beautifully detailed ink and watercolour cityscape, a sprawling, slightly surreal town of stone buildings, teapot towers and curious inhabitants going about their daily lives beneath blue airships drifting overhead. There is a wonderful warmth and gentle humour to every corner of this piece, and the level of detail rewards careful looking.
Hannah Hunter Kelm has taken us underground, into a brilliantly colourful world of pipes, bottles and cheerful green creatures who have made their home in the most unlikely of places. The watercolour work is vibrant and confident, and the sense of a whole community going about its business in this chaotic, joyful space is completely convincing.
Emma Roberts has imagined Sink City as a charming mouse town, with little mouse residents going about their shopping and daily errands amongst buildings made from cleaning bottles and household objects. The “Welcome to Sink City” sign above the door says it all, and the warmth and gentleness of this illustration would sit perfectly on the pages of a much-loved picture book.
Clare Tovey has opened a drawer to reveal an entire miniature world within, a bedroom shelf-scape populated with an alien, a dragon, toy cars and all manner of curious inhabitants living amongst everyday objects reimagined as buildings and landscapes. It is a wonderfully playful and inventive interpretation of the brief.
And finally, Clare Nicholson has created something genuinely extraordinary. A giant child peers into the scene while tiny ant-like figures swarm around an industrial landscape of containers, pipes and machinery, the scale contrast creating a wonderful sense of drama and storytelling. The ink and watercolour work is beautiful, and the composition is unlike anything else in this collection.
Together, these ten Sink City illustrations are a remarkable testament to what happens when creative students are given a brief that truly sets their imaginations free. If you would like to develop your own illustration skills and storytelling instincts, we would love to welcome you to the Illustrating Children’s Books Diploma Course. Find out more here.
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