Books, By Their Covers: Charlie

For second poster illustration in my Books, By Their Covers series, I went back to my childhood favourite, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. This is actually a pretty dark book, as were many of Dahl's classics. I wanted this reflected in the illustration, so it has a slight creepiness to it, with the spindly Wonka showing an everlasting gobstopper to the children. The kids themselves are drawn to reflect their personalities, which Dahl created to perfection. And most importantly of all is Charlie himself, standing to one side with Grandpa Joe, watching the rabble of greedy kids in bewilderment.

I wanted to add detail to Charlie to show his poverty, so I thought it apt that his clothes are clearly too small for him, his family not having the money to get him new ones that frequently. Around the title text (which I wanted to have the feeling of a vintage bar of chocolate)  we see gears and cogs pulling a conveyor belt, to reinforce that we are in a factory. I didn't feel the need to show thousands of sweets and candies being manufactured as the focus of the story is always about Charlie's observations of the sickening kids that slowly get taken out of the running during the visit.