Richard Scarry developed a brand around his artwork and
spent forty years expanding, detailing, exploring and developing adventures for
the citizens of Busytown. Because the anthropomorphic characters resonated so
deeply with young readers, Scarry did not vary much in his style, remaining
instead constant, identifiable and relatable.
Scarry was very methodical in his illustrative processes.
The illustrations were not born out of text, but his minimal text evolved out
of the pictures. To construct his illustrations, he used the “blue board”
method. “Blue boards were layered artwork, not unlike
animation cells, where the painting of colors was done on a background of
illustration board with the line art on its own acetate layer on top of the
background. The type was actually glued in place on another layer of acetate” (Mathieu, n.d.). Scarry would draw his pictures in
pencil onto blue boards, then paint each color for each type of animal
individually on separate sheets of acetate. All the reds for all the hippos, for example,
were done before he would move onto to filling all the foxes with red. Since each
color was on its own sheet of acetate, it makes sense that he would complete
one color in its entirety, let it dry, then lay down another sheet of acetate
to start the process for the next color. Given the amount of material on each
spread and in each book, this orderly method of categorization likely helped
Scarry ensure that not a single detail was overlooked.
Scarry was particular about
the colors he used, preferring the “bright, simple palette of Winsor &
Newton Designer Colors” (Richard Scarry, n.d). Because his intended audience
was comprised of very young children developing foundational awareness, he had
to carefully balance color and line. The colors, keep pure to help teach
children color identification added detail and another method of association
with each item depicted. The lines had to be definitive, providing high
contrast, so that each item could be easily contextualized by readers. They can
pick out items that are in their own homes, like a piggy bank or a tractor or a
colander, and build a framework of the world around them.
It is completely
appropriate that Scarry used the word “busy” in many of his titles and even in
the name of the town where his characters lived—“Busytown”. Each page is
bursting with activity, animals, movement and text, “as crowded and inviting as
someone else’s playroom” (Kastor, 1994). Scarry himself declared his dislike of white space
in his illustrations (quite possibly a sign of the fast-paced nature of his
mind), implying that every inch was a new opportunity for imagination. But
almost of all his spreads do have white space and in fact, use it to help
convey perspective, contrast, and change of scenery.
Scary’s illustrations of
the characters and their adventures tell the stories that he wished to
share—the stories that are hidden in his readers’ imaginations. A young
bookstore clerk described the allure of Scarry’s books and illustrations in
perfect succinctness. “What I liked about them was that there was so much going
on, and there wasn’t a story I had to follow. I could look at the pictures and
enjoy them” (Kastor, 1994).
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