From the Illustrator: Lynda Porter
Tofu Ling offered the opportunity to give visual life to his character, story and his world. A book leaves everlasting memory if it offers visual imagery. This element is strong in Rosanna’s descriptive writing style as she melds mood, dreams and reality into her stories. When she approached me to illustrate Tofu Ling, I felt the images forming immediately as I read the words. Tofu’s character was sketched from his day dreamer, artistic quirkiness. He was not a typical mouse and demanded a lovable, yet uncontained persona. Therefore the scruffy hair and soulful eyes emerged.
Tofu Ling, Artist Origami
I intuitively selected water color and tech pen as the medium. It offered the flowing, dream like quality of the pond in the morning frost; the night’s mystical stars, and the harvesting of imagination. The introduction of origami immediately juxtaposed the contrast between fluid elements and angular design. The first illustration of the swans on the pond, with their magnificent wings and splashing drops of water began the journey into Tofu’s creativity. These led to the contrast of transformational illustrations between reality, painterly expression and brightly angled origami representations. As Tofu Ling recalled events which were important to his family members, the transformation became quite visual to me. The progression of time and life cycles became apparent as caterpillars became butterflies and as snails became folded paper swirls.
I enjoyed incorporating the elements of line, form, shape, color, texture, contrast, positive negative space and composition into each illustration. I found that research helped me to add the realistic detail that I sought and Rosanna’s words guided my way to the portrayal of the characters, mood, emotions and themes of the book. All of the images were created to closely represent the written word as my imagination perceived Tofu’s world. The final “Harvest Your Imagination” illustration is intended to be an inspirational collage of visual images from the book which represent the possibilities of life.
I have read and observed many children’s literature books in which the words and potential for visual imagery were vivid, but the limited style of illustration fell short. The child as a reader, and an adult as a reader, equally deserves quality as the words are brought to life. As Rosanna states that she utilizes a high vocabulary for enrichment of children’s vocabularies at an early age; I believe that their visual and artistic exposure can be equally as rich and sophisticated. The illustrations in Tofu Ling are an integral part of the book and offer much opportunity for observation, imagination and discussion.
