Do you remember the first lines of The Frog Prince? : "Once, in olden times, when wishes still had power, there lived a king. All of his daughters were beautiful, but the youngest was the loveliest of all. The sun itself, which sees so much, was dazzled when its light shone on her face." When I was a child, The Frog Prince was my favorite fairy tale. I asked my mother to read it to me over and over again .

I decided to illustrate The Frog Prince in 1985. When I look at my original storyboard today, it is clear to me that at first, I had chosen only the "easy", well-known scenes: the Princess playing in the wood with her golden ball, standing at the well and crying, the frog bringing the ball back, running after her, the scene at the dinner table and so on - all familiar images. Like many other illustrators I had not tried to draw any of  the scenes which were difficult to represent but nonetheless important to the story; for example the princess throwing the frog against the wall, and the frog's  change into a person.

I struggled for a long time with the scene at the well. It was so hard to choose between four possibilities: should I show the ball just as it fell into the well? Should the frog be diving in or coming to the surface? Should he swim with the golden ball in his mouth? Any one of these scenes on its own seemed too dull. I would have preferred to show them all side by side! Then suddenly I thought of showing the four pieces of action in sequence in the style of a "flick-book" or high-class comic strip.

I had many problems as I began to draw the Princess.  I wanted the Princess to wear a classical crown , but when I started work on the Princess's face  I kept erasing the face and beginning again. I could not succeed with the Princess - she was
either too old or too ugly!  I seemed to have a real grudge against her.  I was so frustrated that I stopped working on this project for a whole year.

Suddenly I understood the problem.  I didn't want you to feel sorry for the princess from my illustrations--she had behaved like a spoiled little girl.  I wanted you to feel sorry for the frog.  The frog had behaved in the right way--  what you have promised you must deliver! The Princess on the other hand deserved a slimy frog in her bed!

The longer I worked on the story, the more uncomfortable I felt with the character of the King. His behavior was no better than the Princess's. What kind of a father must he be, whose sense of justice makes him command his  daughter to go to bed with a frog?

Every time I read the story, I had many  new questions. How old is the Princess? Is she still a girl? Or is she already a woman?  Is she really as mean and cruel as she at first seems? How should I show the frog as a helpful character, one who demands his rights to a prince released from a spell? What kind of a prince is this, hidden in the frog?  What do I think about the king?  What about the prince's servant, old Henry?  I had to understand them in order to be able to make the right illustrations.

So after a year's break , struggling with how I might answer these questions, I began to draw again.  I finally understood the emotions behind the story and then I was able to paint the illustrations.  The princess wanted to get away from the rules of her father.  The frog wanted to break the witches spell.  They were both looking for love.   I could understand my characters and complete their story. . Now at last I realized that I have to have a good relationship with the characters I draw. I have to love them or at least understand them, if the illustrations are to beconvincing. It does not matter if they are beautiful or ugly, good or evil, clever or stupid . . .  It was a long process, which had lasted almost a whole year.