Wednesday 13 March 2013

Willow Baby: A Preview



I've just finished the illustrations for a new book that's set to be published by Paravion Press. It's called Willow Baby and it's a fairytale-style poem written by violinist and story-teller Max Baillie. It's the first in a cycle of 5 poems. Here's a little taste. 

I normally work with fineliners, which produce a very steady line, but for this book, I wanted a look more akin to a woodcut, so I used a japanese Pentel brush pen. It lets you make hair-fine lines as well as thick. generous ones, and it gives you less control, which can be a good thing. For the colours, I used Cretacolor AquaMonolith watercolour pencils.  Here, in fact, is the colour scheme: 


I chose autumney colours, warm and sort of faded. And as you can see, I'm big on patterns, whether it's the surface of water, high grass or tangled hair. 


A date is yet to be set for the book launch, and I will of course post about it when I know. But in the meantime, you can find more of Paravion's publications here, and see Max's  website here.



3 comments:

  1. Great news! I was secretly wondering when I would see some new work from you - so yes I'm excited. Looking forward to seeing this soon. Great work as always!

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  2. Wow! Congrats! I love the illos for this book. And it does have a woodblock print feel to it. The color scheme is so pretty. Thanks for sharing and I look forward to hearing about the book launch!

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    1. Thanks guys! I've illustrated a few books for Paravion now (there's another in the works that should be out soon - I'll do a separate post about it) and will be doing more in the future.

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