40's illustrator: Tove Jansson

Tove Jansson was a Finnish illustrator, graphic novelist, fine artist and author. She is best known for, and made famous by, her Moomin World ('Muumimaailma' in Finnish) creations featuring the main loveable character Moomintroll and other characters such as the Snork Maiden, Little My, Snufkin and Sniff.
While 'Moomin' was a major television cartoon, animated in Japanese-style anime, the characters and backgrounds were based on Jansson's original book illustrations.

Moominpappa and Moominmamma fine dining - illustrated by Tove Jansson

Anime cartoon version by Lars Jansson at TV Tokyo and Telecable Benelux.

Tove and ink:
Jansson's first book, 'The Moomins and the Great Flood', was published in 1945 and featured a watercoloured book cover. Since then, Jansson illustrated her books with line-drawings and heavy black scribbles.

The above illustrations are dark and gloomy and are particularly striking for their melancholy. Born and raised in Finland, Jansson was inspired by her depressing Nordic environment of cold weather, long days and dim daylight. She captures the melancholy of her Finnish roots perfectly through her depiction of light in these illustrations. Bright light remains white, while black scribbles become heavier and bolder as it gets darker. I work in a similar way, preferring to use black pens on white paper and am very much inspired by Tove Jansson and her drawing and shading techniques.

Tove and colour:
I discovered a trend in Tove Jansson's book cover designs. She tends to use a limited colour palette, often primary colours, and doesn't colour the entire image. She leaves a lot of white space and black lines. I like this 'pop' of colour! In some cases, she limits herself to only two colours! The colours are gharish and screaming at the viewer, while the drawings themselves remain subtle and playful.
It's almost as though Jansson used colour to decorate, rather than to properly illustrate her ideas.
I'm inspired by this and would like to experiment with it for my own work on the Vintage Directory.

Mumintrollet is Swedish for 'Moomintroll'

This poster illustration by Tove Jansson features only four pop colours

Mymble and Little My amongst yellow and red

Snufkin amongst yellow, pink, red and blue