As the snow has been accumulating outside I’ve been reading books to my son and appreciating how different artists draw snow (or rather, don’t draw it).
This page from Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things That Go is where I first noticed it. He’s able to make the whole page feel like it’s covered in a few feet of snow without having to actually draw the snow.
The snow is just the white of the paper while the color and shapes on the page give it context.
Little Fox in the Snow does a similar thing, but they use a little bit more shading in the snow to give it form and depth.
Below are some more examples of snow in illustrated books.
When contrasted with vivd colors the white snow seems even brighter.
The white of the paper can be foreground and background.
Even if it’s not pure white, large white shapes give a scale and weight to something that is hardly even printed on the page.
Hyunmin Park takes this idea to its extreme in So Much Snow. The entire page is a pure, flat white while tiny shapes of color pop out to define our surroundings.
Sometimes the white paper (snow) helps add depth and dimension to a scene.
Elsewhere it feels flat and almost two-dimensional.
The snow can be contained within colorful borders.
Or it can be all consuming, stretching beyond the page onto your hand.
Stay warm out there.
Mitchell