Watercolor fairy tales and Chihiro Iwasaki

Okay, these books are now several days overdue, but I had to look through them one more time and take a couple of cover photos. These classic fairy tales (Snow White, Swan Lake, and Red Shoes) were illustrated by the amazing Chihiro Iwasaki. I first discovered her through an interview on Seven Important Things when Hiroe Nakata mentioned her as an influence. And I can't resist checking out a new-to-me watercolor illustrator.

Chihiro Iwasaki's watercolor illustrations are so simple in shape, so beautifully rich and complex in color. She was a master with white space, allowing the white of the page to focus our eyes on the important elements or even using it as the swan in Swan Lake. My favorite of these three is Red Shoes (though I really dislike that Hans Christian Andersen story, like an ultra-harsh precursor to the movie Footloose); she used almost no lines, relying on her many-hued watercolor to tell an evocative story. Her sense of design still feels modern; her watercolor feels fresh and nostalgic at the same time.