Nylmah - new laser cut book

Last week I finished the first copy of a new laser cut book, Nylmah, that had been a side project for some months.  The story is set in a mythical kingdom, which falls under a curse and is brought to ruin.  

There will only be thirty copies made, so if you're interested in owning one then please email me or keep an eye on my online shop - I hope to have at least one or two copies for sale online at some point in the next six weeks. 

The book can be opened and displayed like a concertina book. But the hardback covers can also be folded back on themselves and can sit under the laser cut paperwork, and the book takes on more of a sculptural look - 

Concept work for new laser cut book

Here's a little taster of a new laser cut book that I'm working on...

The main design of the book is on a huge scroll and has taken weeks of work, off and on.  I think I've just passed the half-way mark... there's now only the finishing of the design, the tracing, scanning, photoshopping, editing and laser cutting to go! 

More images and photos to follow later.... 

Merchandise for SandvikFest 2014

This year's SandvikFest merchandise is looking good!

The original design for this was quite detailed, especially at the bottom, and I was worried that the some of the smaller lines would be lost when printed on fabric.  But it seems to have come out alright.  

Original design for SandvikFest 2014

For more info on Sandvikfest visit http://www.sandvikfest.com/ or Twitter and Facebook

All finished and framed...

The framed print above (titled A La Turk) is in a limited edition of nine and is my entry for St Margaret's House Summer Residents Show in Edinburgh.  The show is on from August 9th until September 7th 2014, with the private view is on Friday 8th August.

For more info on the show visit http://www.edinburghpalette.co.uk/events/st-margarets-house-summer-residents-show-2014/ 

Work in progress - part two

Two months ago, I posted up some line drawing etchings in to hardground on this blog and mentioned that the plate was going to be aquatinted.  Aquatint is done by covering the plate in tiny, acryllic droplets and then using a stopping out fluid on areas of the plate to mask them before etching the plate in the acid bath.  The areas under the stop out remain unetched, while the remainder of the plate will produce darker tones when it's printed, as the acid will have eaten in to plate enough to hold more ink.  The process is long and labour intensive, but I wanted more practice at aquatinting for another project I have in mind.

The zinc plate required two applications of aquatint, fourteen hours of burnishing and nine states before it got to the stage where I was happy with it!

1st state - original line drawing

2nd state - after first aquatinting

7th state - after second application of aquatint  

9th and final state!

Two small editions have been produced from this image, but I'll post more details about them later this week.

The Demon by Mikhail Lermontov

A story of love, hellfire and redemption... 

Above is another pen and ink illustration I produced for Frances Robson's Scots translation of Mikhail Lermontov's epic poem The Demon.  The poem itself is forty pages long and is published in an edition of 100 to coincide with Lermonotv's bicentenary.

There will be a reading from the publication by Frances Robson on Saturday 6th of September at the Callander Poetry Weekend, which runs from the 5th to the 7th of September 2014.  It will also be available to purchase there for £8 per copy.  Unfortunatley the book is not currently available to buy online, but if you'd like to order a copy then please do get in touch with me.

New online shop

A little while ago I set up an online shop at http://joannarobsonillustration.bigcartel.com/ where you'll find a selection of my limited edition artists' books.

The shop is still pretty new, so there's anything for sale that you would like more info on, then please let me know.

~Jo

Being Human

This illustration was originally an etching, but had to be patched up in a few places digitally because of a few imperfections on the zinc plate.  Etching seemed the most suitable medium for producing this image because of the lovely texture that you get from it.

This was my entry for this year's Cheltenham Illustration Awards for the theme 'being human'.

SandvikFest 2014

This illustration is for Swedish music festival SandvikFest 2014.

The music festival is in a rural location, beside a lake and some woods, and it was part of the brief to include the location in the illustration.  The image is going to be printed on fabric and had to be not too complex and drawn only in black and white.

The theme of this year's SandvikFest is flowers, and I wanted to incorporate this theme in to the image as well.   However it was a struggle to draw the foliage without any tonal areas, and below are some experiments at trying to draw detailed foliage while keeping the drawings bold:

On last year's SandvikFest illustration, I went a bit overkill with the detail and not all of it printed out clearly.  Hopefully this year's illustration will come out in full.

For more info on this year's festival, visit SandvikFest's website or SandvikFest on Twitter.

Work in progress - Lermontov's 'The Demon'

I'm almost finished an interesting new commission and can now release this image from it.

A new translation of Mikhail Lermontov's epic poem The Demon will be published this year, translated from the original Russian text in to Scots.  The new publication will coincide with Lermontov's bicentenary.

I was asked to produce black and white illustrations to accompany the text.  Sadly I can't share all the illustrations just now, but here's one that I've been permitted to let loose on the blog for now...

Character sketches - 

Work in progress

A couple of weeks ago I took some printed proofs of this etching below.  The plate is now going to get aquatinted, which will give the image different tonalities and a bit more depth.  However this also means that I'll never be able to get the same line drawing from the plate again.

Ten limited edition prints of the line drawing version have been made, as I sometimes find that the original image looks better than the aquatinted version.  Below is a photo of the guide that I painted for myself of the tonal areas, using one of the first printed proofs of the image:

To be continued....

Odds and ends

I've not posted on this in weeks, so here are a few things I've been working on.  Below is a mixture of some etching proofs and a tiny illustrated card.  With the exception of the card, nothing here is in a finished state, especially the etchings: