Newest Piece: The World of Rondo

12/4/2025

By Sean Everitt

When I was a kid, I had a favourite book series, and that was the 'Rondo' books. Written by Jennifer Rowe under her pen name, Emily Rodda. So years later, I've decided to draw a background from one of the locations in the books.

I mostly referenced the first book, 'The Key to Rondo', which is essentially about two cousins, Leo and Mimi, who unknowingly inherit a magical music box. After the villain, the Blue Queen comes out of the music box and steals Mimi's dog, they end up going in. Only to find the fantastical realm of Rondo, where many of its inhabitants are seemingly based on fairytales and nursery rhymes. From talking diva pigs, to shop sellers whose occupations match their names, to little pest gingerbread men and ducks that have a job in eating them. The two cousins go on an exciting adventure, haunted by the Blue Queen's presence and not knowing who to trust along the way.

It was a fun book series and an exciting world to be immersed in, so much so, that I had very vivid pictures of what the different environments looked like. So I decided I'd recreate one of them, and that is the town that the cousins first land in when they arrive in Rondo.

My main focus with this piece was to really capture the essence of standing in the town's streets, as well as adding incredible amounts of details. I wanted to capture the fantastical elements and bring to life important locations in the book. Such as the pie stand and flower shop, as well as the tavern, the Black Lamb, and of course, the toy factory that looms over the buildings. A lot of other elements were also added, based off things mentioned in the book, such as a castle, a kitchen garden, a cart of bananas, balloons that got lodged in the sign of the black lamb, and a small poster for the gingerbread men.

Although plenty of other elements I took creative liberties with, such as what kind of plants get added to the gardens. The mobile stove at the pie stand and how the buildings and colours look in the scene.

I also took the time to practice some new art techniques I learned. Such as with the roofs, where I tested out different ways of making them more interesting with colours and lineart. The mountains in the background, I designed with a technique that involved using multiple colours to try and establish shadows and different shapes. Which I think turned out really well, especially as I hadn't designed mountains like that before.

This was a really fun art piece to make, and I'm really proud of what I was able to do with it, especially with all the new things I learned. Of course, there are things I wish I could improve on, such as texturing the buildings and adding more shading to the foreground. But nonetheless, that is something I will learn from and attempt in my future pieces.

Thank you for reading, stay tuned for more exciting art projects.