The long dead prince is enmeshed in the rambling roses that have entombed the castle. I think it matches Neil’s prose which is beautiful and creepy in equal measure. The second illustration is my favourite in the book. I wanted to convey a “sleep walking nightmare” sense of shuffling, dusty, intensity with the crowd-slow moving but inexorable. This illustration is a double-page spread, and the reader can pause and take in the detail as well as getting the immediate sense of retreat, from the composition. This gave the illustration an engraved look reminiscent of Dore’s engravings. I used a “uni pin” pen for the shading of the background figures, emerging from the shadows. I sketched the illustration in detail in pencil and then inked it in with a fine paint brush. From three sides the crowd closes in, the queen and the dwarves beating a strategic escape towards the right hand corner. This scene was a mass of pencil squiggles. I penciled the book out in thumbnails which I then blew up and used as compositional guides. The sleeping crowd is zombie-like, covered in cobwebs which resemble funeral shrouds. The first illustration I’ve chosen is a scene in the sleeping city. The works of John Tenniel, Gustave Dore, Aubrey Beardsley and William Heath Robinson have all been influences-Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Don Quixote, Salome, and Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, respectively. I have always loved detailed black and white illustrations. The designer suggested gold as a second colour and I love the subtle sense of luxury this brings to the book as a whole.

I wanted the illustrations to be black and white throughout, but to be as rich and textured as possible. But I don’t want to get in the way-words and pictures need to find a balance. As an illustrator I want to enhance the reader’s experience of the book and bring out nuances in the story. There are two illustrations in “The Sleeper and the Spindle” that sum up how I feel about Neil’s extraordinary text. Books For Keeps: Window into Illustration with Chris Riddell!īy Chris Riddell, illustrator of The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman

Chris riddell sleeper and the spindle