Here’s the opening spread from Where’s My Mummy? This scene shows Mama Mummy getting Baby Mummy ready for bed—but Baby wants to play one more round of hide & shriek.
Since they’re mummies, I designed an interior to look like the inside of a pyramid, with lots of Egyptian details. The legendary art director at Candlewick, Caroline Lawrence, felt the setting didn’t convey enough ghoulishness, so she asked me to redraw the scene with a gothic interior.
Revised sketch with gothic details below. Architecture geeks will note the new shape of the columns, rough-hewn stone walls and groined vault arched ceiling.
I changed the oil-burning lamp to a candelabrum, but doused the candles in the color version because they were causing me lighting/shadow problems. I kept the sarcophagus bed from the first sketch.
The light is coming from a single source. More dramatic and easier to paint. Also, the viewer’s eye naturally looks to the light source, which is where I put Baby Mummy.
Is it sad that I am jealous of Mamma Mummy’s figure? Thanks for your update!
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Gentle readers—vote for your favorite Halloween picture book over at Mattie’s blog: madnessbymattie.blogspot.com
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