![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Where the Wild Things Are
Dec. 12th, 2016 09:13 amWhen I was a child, I didn't like Where the Wild Things Are. Max was exactly the sort of boy I didn't like in real life, the kind who is always being loud and causing trouble and generally disrupting everything, and I didn't like the illustration style either. Too dark, too cross-hatched, and the Wild Things with their claws and horns and big teeth and giant mouths frightened me.
Looking at them now, the Wild Things seem weirdly cuddly despite their toothiness - they're all pudgy and soft and furry - but the world looks different when you're five years old.
I'm still not in love with the illustration style on a personal level, but I can appreciate the amount of skill that went into, say, crosshatching every single little leaf on each tree in the land where the Wild Things are. And - I just noticed this - Maurice Sendak uses quite a different style to illustrate the water in the ocean Max crosses in his boat, much more impressionist with great blobs of olive green and dark teal and white for foam.
Looking at them now, the Wild Things seem weirdly cuddly despite their toothiness - they're all pudgy and soft and furry - but the world looks different when you're five years old.
I'm still not in love with the illustration style on a personal level, but I can appreciate the amount of skill that went into, say, crosshatching every single little leaf on each tree in the land where the Wild Things are. And - I just noticed this - Maurice Sendak uses quite a different style to illustrate the water in the ocean Max crosses in his boat, much more impressionist with great blobs of olive green and dark teal and white for foam.
