Sunday, February 27, 2011

story within a story - The Storyteller

Story within a story narrative technique has its ancient roots and One Thousand and One Nights is one of the examples of such narrative techniques. Puffin - Penguin approached me with their interpretation of the Arabian Nights written by Anushka Ravishankar. The story was divided in a few chapters and the editor had picked up some key visuals for interior illustrations but i still had freedom to pick up other scenarios to depict. as the title said the storyteller i wanted to show the Queen indulged in telling the story to her King so she can live for another day and another night she would continue the incomplete tale. Such a beautiful plot and so on the cover it is Scheherazade telling a tale to ME. another fantasy lived, isnt that the best part of this profession!! you can project yourself wherever you want to.
The original tales are quiet erotic and since this version is meant for kids, the eroticism was edited and simplified for their primary audiences, otherwise every illustration would have had me as the central idea living the arabian fantasies till the book runs out of editions... eternity in a way!
The interior illustrations are purely Black&White for a simple reason that there are infinite tales happening in one tale so to keep the simplicity and depth in the visuals, this technique was chosen.
They have a little seriousness but also are witty and make your eyes travel to catch the details quiet similar to the words written in the book.
click on the images for a hires view and you can buy a copy from FLIPKART and here is the Link






8 comments:

klitus said...

beautiful and mystifying

Ashoo said...

harsh .. nice illustrations .. esp the last B&W are super !! keep rolling
cheers :)

harshvardhan kadam said...

thanks pallavi and ashu, am glad!
i hv the book.. will show it to you once we meet!

Abhilash.N said...

This is Awesome.....!!!

vikrant said...

Simply superb!

kokainehighs said...

nothing new?!

Rahul said...

speechless harshaa

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