Wednesday, October 20, 2010

The Gashlycrumb Tinies


“The Gashlycrumb Tinies” is an illustrated book by Edward Gorey. The story is about 26 children who each represent the letters of the alphabet and through rhyming simple lines explains their untimely deaths.

The illustrations are simple and crafted in black and white. Each picture perfectly depicts the words below it. Through short strokes Gorey creates extremely active and intricate pictures. He uses almost no outline in his illustrations, just creating shape through gradient and hatch marks.

Gorey's illustrations seem to work well within the context of what he is trying to portray; a book about unfortunate children who meet their ends in interesting ways, while teaching children the alphabet.

I really enjoy the drawings and how whimsically macabre they are. The demises the children reach I find humorous and the illustrations really make this book.

To see the entire series larger here is a link.

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