Gobbolino the Witch's Cat by Ursula Moray Williams

Recently I've been thinking about other illustrated books that I enjoyed reading as a child and immediately thought of this one. Gobbolino the Witch's Cat is the story of a kitten who never wanted to be an evil, mischievous witch's cat- he wanted to be a house or farmcat that could just curl up beside the fire instead of stirring cauldrons and making spells.

I really loved the illustrations in this book because of their scribbly style. The author Ursula illustrated the book herself which I thought was a great idea because an author would know exactly where each illustration should be and where it would be needed most, and would be able to execute it exactly the way they wanted. However not all authors have an artistic talent like Ursula and so there exists jobs for people like me. :D

Just like in Black Beauty there are little vignettes throughout the book which is something I'm beginning to realise is a feature I like in books, as well as chapter illustrations. I love that the drawings in this book in particular are almost just refined sketches- they remind me of my reportage and sketchbook work in that they're not perfect but have a quaint charm about them (maybe because they are so imperfect).

 There are quite a lot of illustrations in this book, more than usual for a story of this length. However although this would be impractical for a lot of artists, because of the style of the work, it meant that it wouldn't be so difficult to put in as many illustrations as want or needed.
While working through The Witches I identified quite a lot of illustrative spikes, many being small vignettes, and so maybe I could try doing my own drawings in a quicker, colourless style to be able to achieve this.