The Ramshackle House

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

Here I spent as much time painting the clouds and sky as I did the main focus of the image (hard to believe I know). The thing is that the sky in illustration is often underestimated and overlooked, and it’s not hard to see why. No one is going to pay much attention to it anyway, the viewer’s eye is going directly to the main focus of the illustration, after all that’s what it’s made for, in this case its purpose is to show the house that James and his aunties’ live in. But, though probably no one will notice it, the sky brings a lot to the overall feeling and atmosphere of an image which is important for any piece of art.

I made sure the clouds didn’t dominate the image, so I kept them subtle. They can either help or destroy your composition, so I couldn’t just scatter them randomly, every cloud or bit of clear sky has got its purpose and its place, guiding the viewer’s eye in the right direction.

“They lived – Aunt Sponge, Aunt Spiker, and now James as well – in a queer ramshackle house on the top of a high hill in the south of England.”