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Al Chetta, art director/designer
Kristen Daly, editor
Harper Collins Children's Books, publisher

Illustration from Paul Revere's Ride, The Landlord's Tale by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow "This picture is an example of how I sometimes develop an illustration. So much of the poem takes place at night that I wanted to develop the illustrations tonally right from the beginning. Using pen-and-ink and working quickly gave me the kind of spontaneity I believed was right for the 'Ride.' There is a wonderful driving force to Longfellow's words, words like 'moving shapes of shade,' and 'the Measured tread of the grenadier,' that needed bold moving illustrations to match the forceful rhythm of the poem. The tonal pen sketches set a pictorial mood for me that I tried to duplicate in the paintings. Once I establish the mood with the tonal pen-and-ink drawing the next step is a loose watercolor study attempting to retain in color the feeling and spontaneity of my first sketch. I try to limit the watercolor studies to no more then an hour or so to complete. For the final painting, I try to retain in the finish some of the loose treatment of the color study. I find it interesting to juxtapose carefully modeled areas like Paul Revere and his horse in the forground against a loose liquid-like handling of the moonlit water behind him."

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