A scratchboard fairytale illustration for this week’s Illustration Friday. /Karen/ visited this weekend and knitted and bought Angela Carter’s collection of fairytales which was illustrated with quite rough, folksy (lovely) woodcuts (I seem to recall part of K’s thesis was on this fairytale as well). I worked on this while she made her first foray into coptic bookbinding.
October 13, 2008 at 9:49 am
hee! awesome :-)
October 13, 2008 at 9:59 am
Lovely piece of work!
October 13, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Thanks Jason!
And thankyou, Roberta.
October 13, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Lovely idea! Adorable picture!
Strangely, I can’t place which fairytale it is. It’s not the Swan Princes, with Elise and her nettle shirts, is it?
Cute bird, too.
October 13, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Well spotted :)
October 13, 2008 at 8:56 pm
So refreshing to see b&w scratchboard. The design is charming.
October 13, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Thankyou very much, June. It is a wonderful medium to work with.
October 14, 2008 at 12:48 am
This is very cool and a unique entry this week. I thought it was a woodcut illustration at first! This might make a good header for your blog ;)
October 14, 2008 at 4:33 am
Beautiful illo and style! :)
October 14, 2008 at 10:07 am
I love this style – a real throwback to the Golden Age of illustration. Very beautiful!
October 14, 2008 at 10:48 am
Thankyou Jedediah – that was the feel I was going for. It’s surprising how many effects people can get with scraperboard: woodcut, linotype, etching, sketching, graphic, ink etc.
Thankyou Kris-Tea and Helen. I really like some of the work from that era, Helen!
October 14, 2008 at 10:49 am
Oh, and thanks for the header suggestion, Jedediah. I’d love to, but it is a rather vertical image. Maybe I’ll design something similar but sideways.
October 14, 2008 at 9:11 pm
It turned out magnificently! And yes, I did indeed write part of my thesis on that fairy tale. Let me see if I can find you the link … ah, yes, here and here.
October 15, 2008 at 2:44 am
This is really great!! very beautiful =)
October 15, 2008 at 8:58 am
Thanks Karen! I really enjoyed those stories – have you submitted them anywhere?
Thankyou, shiva!
October 15, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Oh, I love that! Charming and striking at the same time. Delightful image. Looks great!
October 15, 2008 at 9:23 pm
Thankyou, artmodel! I am glad – I didn’t want it to be just ’sweet’ so ‘charming and striking’ is a great compliment :)
October 16, 2008 at 1:48 pm
This is wonderful! Great composition and the string around the branches is a great touch.
October 16, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Wonderful! I love everything about this, from the leaves and yarn, to the cute little bird watching her knit.
October 17, 2008 at 4:17 am
This is so wonderful!
I think it’s my favorite!
And thanks for your kind comment!
Denise
October 17, 2008 at 10:14 am
Thankyou, Paper Pictures – I always thought knitting in a tree must be impractical.
Lizybeth – thanks, and I’ve always liked that sort of little folkart bird.
Thankyou so much Denise, and please do print a book of yours!