The Power of Three

Diana Wynne Jones is one of my favourite (and formative) authors, and it was such a delight to be able to do this cover for her novel The Power of Three, for Utz Books.

Here are some of the preliminary sketches: reading the book again (a lovely twisty, funny, mystical plot, with that sliding-through of perspectives DWJ does so well), getting details right, working out how I wanted to draw aspects.

Then narrowing down the cover treatment — the format had to match other cover designs, which is both a challenging and liberating consideration.

Finally, developing and refining this cover and a treatment and style that would fit the other covers (similar textures, etc).

August Calendar: Woodland folk

Welcome to the August calendar! Brought to you, as ever, with the help of those of you who are patrons on Patreon.

This terribly busy design is what happens when I think I’ll do something quick and early, to get it out of the way before travel, and end up hiding out in Dartmoor colouring tiny bees (so many tiny bees) in between editing manuscripts.

But tonight, fairly unexpectedly, we went to see The Lord Chamberlain’s Men perform A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Killerton, and it was enchanting.

Below, for personal use, are the printable versions of the calendar — and if you do enjoy these and are inclined to support the calendar (for it does take a bit of time!), then support on Patreon or paypal.me is always welcome!

(I do plan to put together a repeating pattern from this once I’m home from this work trip).

July Calendar: Theft and Larceny

Ah, July. Season of… miscellaneous mustelidae conducting a heist. (Brought to you, as ever, with the support of patrons on patreon.com/tanaudel). Are they stoats? Weasels? Ferrets? Who knows — but lock your strongrooms.

I’m not sure which detail is my favourite. I think it’s the lock-pick, but this one has more comedy potential:

And below are the printable files: coloured and line-only (for personal use). I hope you enjoy them, and if you do, and have a few coins for the tip jar, support for the time (and ink) is always welcome: patreon.com/tanaudel / paypal.me/tanaudel.

Orphan Black: The Next Chapter

In which it takes cutting out a surprising number of chains of paper-dolls to get just the right look.

A deceptively simple piece of a art for a very exciting new project from Serial Box!

And here are just a few of the progress stages!

June Calendar: Against the Flow

Mermaids for June! This is largely because I was doing the Mermay challenge (mostly linocuts: you can see the progression on Instagram: @tanaudel), and the only way I was going to get through the last few days AND get the calendar done was to double up (there’s… a lot on).

Rather excitingly, I inked it all with a brush, which is not my usual choice (especially for fine lines!). There are control issues, but the fluidity of it is delightful. Here’s a progress shot.

And below are the full calendar pages, pre-coloured or to colour yourself! If you enjoy the calendar and have a few dollars you’d like to support it with, then that is always very welcome! You can join the patrons who make it possible at patreon.com/tanaudel, or toss a coffee’s worth at  paypal.me/tanaudel. In any case, though, I hope you have fun with these folks.

May Calendar: Concert

The printable May calendar page is here, brought to you with the support of my patrons (and if you’d like to toss a few coins in the hat, they are always welcome and keep the calendar happening: Patreon (ongoing); paypal.me (one-off)). And also by a few episodes of This Podcast Will Kill You.

I’m not sure yet if the bilby was a marsupial too far, but I’m quite pleased by its rocking approach to playing the lute. And I do like the idea of bats swaying in the branches, playing their ukuleles at sunset.

Anyway, this is a trifle sillier than usual, but it’s my birthday month, so why not have a snake playing a lagerphone?

The images below link to full-size .jpg files that you can print at home: pre-coloured, or to colour yourself.

 

April Calendar: Bears

Bears!

The April calendar is here, in printable coloured, greenish and to-colour-yourself formats (see the end of the post). It is brought to you, as ever, with the invaluable support of my wonderful patrons over on Patreon.com/tanaudel.

This began as a series of ideas about transformation. “Snow White and Rose Red” was briefly the leading fairy tale in my mind, which is how the bears got in. But roses mean “Beauty and the Beast”, and then the hinted tales began wandering further afield.

Here’s a quick glimpse at the process. I’m playing around with these negative silhouettes at the moment.

Then scanned, arranged and coloured on the computer, and bears, everywhere.

The downloadable files, for you to print at home and use for the April calendar, are below. And if you’d like to support the calendar, and see more behind the scenes, please do consider supporting them through Patreon.