Laurel Long

I was expecting a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast story, but instead I got East of the Sun and West of the Moon which is even better! Of course, there's very little original material in the telling of the story (why mess with a classic), but what makes this book a great read is the stunning artwork. Long is clearly a master of oil painting, as each illustration is lush with colour, highly detailed, and perfectly composed. The background details are slightly more stylized than I'm used to seeing in classical oil painting (which often tends to a blurred softness), but this fits the storybook format quite well and leads the reader to focus on the more ornate foreground and subjects. My only complaint (and it's more of an observation than true criticism) is that Long mixes so many distinct stylizations (I got some Japanese, Chinese, Middle Eastern, Western, and Indian influences) that it might be a bit overdone for some tastes.… (mehr)