More Tallow-Wife glimpses

I’ve been having a wonderful time working through Angela Slatter’s The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales (previously mentioned here: Beginning Sketches) to be published by Tartarus (we hope later this year).

It’s the third volume of stories in the world of Sourdough and The Bitterwood Bible, and my job is to sketch through it, drawing and reacting — as a reader and fan, as much as an artist.

I love our approach for these books. It’s a style I have to constantly work towards recreating when I work in a production process that involves thumbnail sketches and pencils and approvals.

These are pure glimpses of gesture and scene, a little lighthearted, frequently grim. Many pages of them.

You can seek more sketches (and an extract from the afterword) over on Angela’s blog: The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales.

Illustration Friday: Imaginary Friend

A tiny reduction linoprint for Illustration Friday.

I need to work on registration (alignment) of the colours, but I’m very pleased by the possibilities.

Illustration Friday: Black and White

Here is a tiny linocut Holstein-Friesian cow for this week’s Illustration Friday topic, “black and white”. And, of course, a cattle bird.

The choice was heavily influenced by my current reading: Ovid’s Metamorphoses (tweets start here), where cattle (and snakes) feature heavily (“the same they did out Queensland way…”).

I’m still feeling my way around this media, so expect a few more pieces as I working on getting it obey my will. Mwhahahaha.

Illustration Friday: Electronic

The Illustration Friday topic this week was “electronic”, and since I’ve been regretting my (unavoidable) inability to enter the Folio Society illustration competition, my thoughts were on Diana Wynne Jones’s books, and the unexpected co-appearances of magic and more contemporary technologies.

So here is a Howl, of Howl’s Moving Castle, as loosely suggested by a scene that is in the book, but not the movie!

And here is the original piece, with my hand for scale.

Illustration Friday: Flying

A little cut-paper moon-thief, for Illustration Friday.

Illustration Friday: Hero

I haven’t done an Illustration Friday piece for quite a while, but here is a little scratchboard hobbit for this week’s topic Hero.

Illustration Friday: Heroic

A lady who Gets Things Done.

Digital colours over a pencil sketch, playing with some techniques and influences including (but not limited to) Blexbolex‘s way with overlays and early 20th century Australian circus costumes, particular as recorded in Mark St Leon’s history Circus: The Australian Story.

In other news, so many covers announced this week, making me look very efficient. I will start posting them here soon, or stay tuned on Twitter and Facebook.

Illustration Friday: Up

A little pencil foolishness, with colour added on the computer. There are some offset perspectives happening here but OH WELL, I like the little Gibson Harpy.

Illustration Friday: Mischief

The Illustration Friday topic is “mischief”, which has a rather softened meaning in modern English.

The illustration, however, turned into the love child of The Cheshire Cat and Tailypo, and other things that hang head-down from the trees and whisper to you.

I’ve also been playing around with cyanotypes (sun prints), so here is a print made with the original silhouette.

Illustration Friday: Internet

I had the blinding epiphany today, after trying out some white graphite transfer paper (Royal Langnickel which is the best name) that instead of squinting to see lead pencil lines on black paper, I could have been using a white pencil this whole time.

This isn’t a complete conversion: the lines aren’t as fine and don’t erase (whatever Royal Langnickel claims about kneadable erasers), so it’s only really good for designs that are fully developed before I transfer them to the paper – direct composition will still be pencil.

But good grief.