Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

Black Beauty was one of my favourite novels as a child and in the hardback edition I own I've always admired the watercolour illustrations inside. This book was illustrated by Kate Aldous in watercolour and pencil, in an accurate style with plenty of colour and life.

 This was one of the first full page illustrations in the book. As you can see, the use of colour is bright and vivid, and the dynamic composition of the drawing gives it plenty of movement and flow. I love the 'realistic' style of the drawing too, which is something a lot of modern illustrators forego in favour of their own wackier styles.

 

Another thing I really like about this book is the vignettes in each chapter. There are lots of these throughout the book, both big and small, with some taking up 2/3 of the page like the one above. The text has expertly been moulded around the images and helps to punctuate key points of the text which don't require full-page illustrations but definitely benefit from the extra visuals. 

 

These are two of my favourite full-page illustrations in the book. The watercolour paints are the perfect choice of medium for this kind of realistic illustration because although bright and colourful they can also produce just the right tones and colours for human and animal forms. They are a great choice to use for children's books and illustrations because of their friendly, inviting atmosphere.

 

The small illustrations for each chapter title are also features I think work really well in this book and style of illustration. They definitely help to keep the book interesting and engaging for children- the book itsself is particularly long and while I could read it all the way through without losing interesting, I know not every child could and the illustrations definitely spurred me on to read even more voraciously.