"The children pressed to each other like so many roses,
so many weeds, peering out to look at the hidden sun."
These illustrations were created to accompany Ray Bradbury's "All Summer in a Day," a short story that follows a simple yet heartbreaking act of human cruelty in just a few pages. The story takes place on the planet Venus, a place where it rains constantly – the sun only comes out once every seven years.
I designed the story's illustrations with warm, vibrant greens and yellows to reflect Venus's dense vegetation and humid atmosphere. Bradbury's haunting words focus on the contrast between the constant sound of rain followed by sudden silence when the sun appears, so I aimed to mirror that contemplative, steady silence in these illustrations.
"They came slowly to look at her opened palm.
In the center of it, cupped and huge, was a single raindrop."
"I think the sun is a flower / that blooms for just one hour."
