At this point, everyone knows that “Ring Around The Rosie” is about the black plague. (If you didn’t and I just ruined that for you I am very sorry, you should probably skip this project). As it turns out, lots of nursery rhymes are theorized to have pretty gruesome origins. I thought it would be interesting to illustrate a nursery rhyme book that plays with these twisted backstories (hence the creepy moon on the cover). It was very important to me when planning out this project to not include faces. (By very important I mean I just did not feel like drawing faces). With this no-face rule in mind, I made the absolutely groundbreaking decision to do some hand lettering. And by some, I mean 12 full spreads of it. So without further ado, let’s dive right into me ruining your childhood.
One version of this rhyme is about Mary Queen of Scots and a fancy dress (boring). Another is about Queen Mary I, also known as Bloody Mary. In short, silver bells and cockle shells are torture devices, the maiden was a guillotine and the rhyme is about the mass execution of protestants under her rule.
This one is a little simpler. The old man couldn’t get up because he died in his sleep. This illustration has dramatic lighting, which is continued throughout the book.
Moving away from death, one theorized origin of this rhyme is England’s 420-year-old Wakefield Prison. According to the prison’s former warden, the rhyme is about a tree in the yard that prisoners exercised around, presumably on a cold and frosty morning.
Now back to death, actually right back to where we started, Queen Mary. The blind mice in question were (you guessed it) protestants who Queen Mary had killed after they tried to overthrow her rule. Theoretically.
This rhyme also can be tied back to English royalty and religion but another idea is that this old lady feeds her dog the bones of her murder victims.
If you don't already know this rhyme is about the Black Plague, you’re clearly not reading my copy very thoroughly.
This one is pretty straightforward, a baby falls out of a tree.
Peter killed his wife, chopped up her body, and put it inside pumpkins. Points for creativity?
There’s a theory (with absolutely no archaeological evidence to support it) that in order to keep London Bridge upright, it’s builders built it on a foundation of sacrificed children. Evidently, it didn’t work because it's falling down.
“She whipped them all soundly to bed.” I don’t think I need to explain anything here.
Jack broke his skull, then Jill broke hers.
An old man got thrown down the stairs. Generally speaking, don't throw anyone down the stairs.
The endpapers and patterns throughout are inspired by old English wallpaper, giving the book a vintage touch.
For those of you who are interested in seeing more detail in these illustrations, I’ve included flat images of the covers and all the spreads above. Creating 12 different lettering compositions proved challenging as I did not want the book to get repetitive. For cohesion, I referenced 3 fonts throughout the whole book. Additionally, I included a different old English-inspired wallpaper pattern on each spread. I kept the color palette muted to maintain the macabre feeling that these rhymes have and used big washes of color to create light and shadow.
project specifications
PROGRAMS: Procreate, Adobe Photoshop
FONTS: Hand-lettering
ART DIRECTION: Sean McCabe