Anne of Green Gables

This new book cover for an independently published version of an Anne of Green Gables collection has been making the internet rounds. As someone who was a skinny, freckled, reddish-haired, book loving kid, Anne was one of my heroes. My friend Cynthea is a fellow Anne aficionado and because we've both been talking about doing Anne art for a while, this terrible cover photo was the last straw. So here is my version of Anne as I remember her from the beloved first book of the series and equally beloved 1985 television mini series. Maybe it's not an image overhaul, but at least it follows her description in the actual book.

Another interesting tidbit I uncovered is that author L.M. Montgomery had used a magazine clipping of a young chorus girl and model Evelyn Nesbit as the visual inspiration for Anne. Nesbit posed for several artists including Charles Dana Gibson, famous for his "Gibson Girl" drawings. Having recently read the graphic novel Kiki de Montparnasse about the muse of Man Ray and many other European artists, it's still very interesting to me how many artists can find a muse in a single person.