I once knew a lady from Bezalel street

No, no book-ends, just unfinished books.

When I was much older, I bought a small wacom-pad, and toyed with the idea of illustrating a children's book.

I came across these this week, and wanted to share em, talk about the ideas behindem, and dedicate this post to my friend Miranda who blogs about Paris to her Italian friends.

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There is a great children's poem by Yoram Taharlev, about...

A lady from  Bezalel  street, that decided to go out on a sunny day, with a small dog and a basket, and a flower at the shirt, 
And she said how lovely

Suddenly she sees a lamp at a shopping window, and says: just a lamp like this is what I am terribly missing!

So she comes out of the store, with a dog, and a basket, and a flower, and the lamp she was terribly missing, and says: how lovely

But than she sees a vase that she really misses in her apartment, she buys it

Now she has a vase she can decorate her house with...

• And than a Mandolin, to entertain her friends,
• And than a parrot in a cage, to sing to her when she is sad.
• And than she is thirsty, buys juice, but everything falls and breaks, 

and the parrot gets free, and sings for her... so she won't be sad...



Never got to finish it, but I really enjoyed the process and the ideas so much, I wanted to share it.
So here are some ideas I found interesting:

• When looking for a visual I liked Carmen Miranda, since she has the basket on the head, and both hands are free to hold stuff.
• Every page contains:
• Her and all her possessions drawn
• a photographed scenery
• A small piece of text, so parents can read with their kids just a few words on each page.
• Lots of white, so the drawing is part of page, and not just an illustration.
• She always remains the same position, but all her objects change and grow all the time. (you can see at the last one she is dragging the lamp), so the life is in the consumption-objects. 
• Each object has a single color (that changes from page to page)
• The idea was that the text-page will be black, but that the part in it that is in the illustration will be blue at the text-page as well.
• And a naughty note: the vase turned to a boys-pop-group holding flowers (, and if you look carefully, the dog there is certainly a male as well.)

Hope you enjoyed this blast from the past!

Till nextime!

P.S.
Just found a lovely illustration with all the words here