The two white rabbits

This was a project miles away from my usual comfort zone

I was asked if I could provide an illustration for a children’s story, which was flattering in itself, as not really something I am known for. I am usually doing something architectural. Occasionally I paint animals, but this exercise was rather different

The stipulation was to paint or draw two white rabbits, a mother and child. They were to be white but set against a white background, so tricky in itself. The storyline dictated that the picture had been painted by a child, albeit an art prodigy, as an entry to a competition. How to look through the eyes of a child? Not something I have ever been good at

After the drawing, which was simple enough, I shaped the rabbits with shading in a very pale blue. I think I used Cobalt as that is fairly flat anyway. White rabbits tend to have pink noses and pink inside their ears, which I added with very dilute Crimson

To give the forms some sort of identity, I washed round the edges with again very dilute green gold, which gave a little bit of a lift, without straying far from the original specification

So that the images didn’t float in mid air, I did put some darker green as grass, but otherwise stuck to the original premise

I am pleased to say that the young boy won first place in the competition, so all was worthwhile

The story is called The Poisoned Apple and is serialised on Pinterest