Output details

The Selfish Giant

In making this, the artist’s most recent picturebook, Deacon was concerned to improve his understanding of the use of colour, specifically colour as it is perceived by our eyes and colour as it is produced and blended in pigments. He studied different methods for the mixing of colours in paint, gaining an understanding of the possible variables for any colour, namely its tone (lightness or darkness) its chroma (saturation or intensity) and its hue (red, green, blue etc), and how to achieve desired outcomes from the materials available. The artist studied how the behaviour of light is shown through colour; how this can help to create compositions which seem to exist in particular coloured atmospheres; how to indicate through the use of colour what are the dominant light sources and which the lesser, and how to break from these systems to produce points of emphasis and contrast. This was especially important for this text, as it required the representation of the passage of the seasons from winter to summer and to marry these transitions with the moods and aspect of the central character.