Jack and the Beanstalk Illustration project by Sam Bosma

These illustrations for Jack and the Beanstalk are part of the final student project of illustrator Sam Bosma and remain part of his online portfolio - and rightly so. The work is wonderful. Though he graduated in May of this year his work has already been recognized by The Society of Illustrators.

The captions below the pictures are Mr. Bosma's descriptions.

The swarthy butcher plans on cheating jack out of his goat friend.

I think this panel with the butcher is my favorite illustration. A lot of storytelling happening in this scene.Jack, halfway up the beanstalk, stops for a sandwich.

The giant's wife shows some hospitality.

He apparently rewrote the story for himself as part of nailing down the concept before laying out the illustrations for a book. Though he doesn't say this in his blog, his version seems to have a South American feel, even with the viking-like headdress of the giant's wife.

The giant is less generous with his golden bird.

You can find all his work in progress posts on this project and see large and lovely versions of the final pieces at his blog HERE. I only wish he'd posted his story too. I have to say I'm intrigued by this version.

Much of his work has an air of a folktales or calls to mind urban legends of various kinds (giants and other creatures abound). The black and white illustrations for the Lovecraft story "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" are wonderfully moody and tell the story all by themselves. I recommend checking out the artist's website and online portfolio HERE.