Contacts with Commisioning Clients #1

Faber and Faber


On the Tuesday of our trip to London we visited art director Donna Payne and her colleagues at Faber and Faber. They were very gracious hosts [even offering us biscuits!] and gave us a huge chunk of there surely very busy schedule.

It was a very informative and interesting meeting at which Donna and her colleagues took us through the process of commissioning an illustrator and the nature of the communication between illustrator, publisher, and client. I must admit I was quite nervous at first but soon I realised they are just normal and very nice people and I felt much more confident about approaching similar people in the future. Also they all had very kind words for us regarding our work, and also very useful advice as well, about both our physical and PDF folio's.

Additionally, it was very interesting to see their offices and what kind of working environment they had.

A huge thanks to Donna and her co-workers at Faber and Faber.

Major Project: Final Images w/Roughs - Image 5 "The Lady of the Moon"

This was one of the tougher images to do. I had the basic overall idea down pretty soon, I wanted a big sun in the sky and an archer shooting it down. As you can see I toyed with the idea of having the bow and arrow on its own and no figure but I thought this was a little bit abstract and so I was looking for a way to have a figure shooting an arrow at the sun. Due to the format, having the figure shooting form one of the bottom corners to the opposite top corner just wasn’t working, and so I thought it would look good to have him firing straight up in the air. This worked as it looked quite nice visually and also evoked how awkward and difficult shooting an arrow at the sun would be if it was directly above you [not to mention how far away it is obviously]. It gave the character a nice awkward look and I knew I could have him squinting and looking as though it was a difficult task.

The tough bit however was making the figure work. Initially having the figure shooting straight up in the air was making him look as though he was lying flat on his back. I needed him to look as though he was stood up straight, but firing directly upwards. And then came the problem of how his hands were holding the bow, and how this was in relation to the rest of the figure. The more realistic poses had the arms and face all in line with each other [how you would fire a bow in real life] but this was making the silhouette of the limbs and body very confused and melding them together and it just wasn’t working right. I had done some others that worked a little better but were less realistic in terms of how to fire a bow, and after some tutor advice decided this was the way to go.

I also wanted to make sure that the figure was made of mostly straight lines to evoke the tension and strain the character would be feeling when attempting to fire an arrow at the sun.

As you can see from the final image, this is clearly not how one would fire a bow in reality but I think the figure looks a lot better and it really evokes the difficulty and awkwardness of what he is doing.

Images Copyright Dan Hodgkinson 2011

Major Project: Final Images w/Roughs - Image 4 "The Great Flood"

This is another image that came fairly easily to me, there is only one rough here because there are a couple of very small thumbnails in my sketchbook and the rest I was drawing on the lino and then erasing it and drawing over, I should of photocopied them to show the progression but I didn’t but enough of that, on with the post...

As I said, it came fairly easily to me as I knew I wanted to have the stone lino with its eyes red, as in the story when the lion statue’s eyes glow, the flood will come. So with it being very narratively driven, I knew I needed to have the lion statue and something to show a flood. At first I had a sort of wavy water line as you can see from the rough, and I was going to have the everything above the water line being opposite to everything below, in terms of positive/negative with the black and white. However after some discussion with tutors I added the wave to make the flood look a little more violent. Also it looked nice in some of the roughs to have the lion facing away from the wave as if unaware of its fate, so that stuck.

Obviously you can see how the Lion is very different from the rough to the final. This is similar to what I commented on in the last post in that I decided not to completely steal a Chinese style lion as it would be too direct a symbol of Chinese culture. Instead I made a more western looking lion but I think it works well. I also decided to have the lion on some sort of plinth to symbolise the fact that its meant to be a statue of a lion, not an actual lion.


Images Copyright Dan Hodgkinson 2011

Major Project: Final Images w/Roughs - Image 3 "The Disowned Princess"

This image came fairly easily compared to the others, when I read the line from the story “at once a warrior emerged from the waves” I instantly had a very clear mental picture of what it could look like. Obviously there are many comparisons with Moses parting the red sea so it’s not an unfamiliar image to me and I knew I wanted a strong character with an expressive pose. I started with the figure in the corner and the road leading away from him, as in the story he parts the waves for the protagonists to progress on their journey.

However I soon realised that it looked nice to have the warrior central, gesturing straight up with his sword and the road coming towards the viewer in perspective.
What didn’t come easily however was how to do the waves. I tried many different versions drawing directly onto the lino [fool] but they just weren’t working and so eventually I came upon some very eastern looking waves in a woodblock print and so decided to use those. I think they work nicely however the waves above the warrior need to be refined. I wanted to have some waves looking as though they were just peeling away either the side of the warrior, and them some crashing away from him more violently, but the more dramatic ones [spirally ones] need some refinement.
Overall I am happy with the image but it does need refinement of the waves in my opinion.

One of my objectives was not to make the images too Eastern or “chinesey” for want of a better adjective, because they were illustrating Chinese fairy tales and I was using Chinese propaganda posters as a point of reference, I didn’t want them to borrow from these influences too rapaciously. I still wanted the elements to be mine but just have flavours of the influences apparent.
This image probably has the most as the armour of the warrior is based on Chinese armour and as I said the waves are very eastern, but I think overall it is balanced. I am happy with how the figure seems to evoke the propaganda posters in its strong, dramatic pose, and it can be said of all the images that the black and red is very reminiscent of those posters.

One criticism I have of this piece however, is that it has a lot more black in it and is quite pattern heavy on the eye, so that is another thing to consider if I revise this image in the future.


Images Copyright Dan Hodgkinson 2011

Major Project: Final Images w/Roughs - Image 2 "The Cave of Beasts"

This is again an image that I had already worked on and had a good idea for, so it was basically a matter of refining it and converting it to the lino. My main objectives with this image both when I was working on it before I made the decision to do solely lino’s, and afterwards, was to make the shape of the kettle right, and to get the wolf inside the kettle right also. I needed to make the kettle read as a kettle to the viewer but also to not make it look too much like a teapot. Also twinned with this problem was the problem of the shape of the wolf. After going through the earlier, non-lion versions, I was aware that the wolf just wasn’t right and it didn’t look enough like a wolf, and it could have done with looking more foetal inside the kettle.

So I went about solving the problem with many drawings of the image [again the roughs here don’t represent the amount of drawings I did] and slowly I began to get a feel for the wolf and how it could be more foetal. I am quite happy with the wolf in the final image, although I think I could deal with its shape slightly better, as its legs are hidden at the moment, although this was to give it an overall more streamlined foetal shape, I think the viewer could read it better with legs. Also I think upon reflection I could have included more marks to represent its fur.
I am happy with the overall shape of the kettle and the steam issuing from the spout, but if I was to tackle the image again, I would probably refine the flames and the wolf inside the kettle.

Images Copyright Dan Hodgkinson 2011

Major Project: Final Images w/Roughs - Image 1 "The Bird with Nine Heads"

This is the first of the five images that I have created for my major project, and one that (as you can see from my previous posts) I have already done work on. As I said in a recent post I made the decision to do my images as full lino cuts, instead of cobbling them together from different techniques. I think this way they have a more unified feel and I don’t have to worry about elements not working together etc.
So I decided that my old idea just wasn’t working with the bird as a central motif and the elements like the sword and the needle supporting it. I decided to go for a more organic composition with the sword as a central element that gives the image a straight, central line, to which the more organic forms of the birds heads intertwine and wrap around.

This was quite difficult and I would like to stress that the roughs included here are only a small collection of the drawings that I did for the image. I seemed to ahve a nice composition when I got to about 6 heads , then fitting the last 3 in was quite difficult. However I think this forced me to be quite creative in how I was going to fit them in, and choosing to have some of the heads as being severed not only added to the narrative of the image [as this is what happens in the story] but allowed the heads to fit in quite nicely.

I think the elements work well as the sword [while being a narrative element] also symbolises the strength and bravery of the main character and the small love heart in the hilt symbolises his love for the princess that he saves.
Equally I think the birds heads work well as I based them roughly on vultures to give them a horrible monstrous feel. Obviously there is always room for improvement and there is other ways I could have dealt with the necks wrapping around the sword etc, but on the whole I am happy with the result.

Images Copyright Dan Hodgkinson 2011

ShellsuitZombie

While in London we had a very special evening with ShellsuitZombie, which is a “project run by graduate creatives that encourages interaction between graduating students and the creative industry”. The evening was very light hearted and tongue in cheek and full of alcohol and laughs but they had a serious point that they got across in their presentation about the relationship between the recently graduating students, and the creative industry. To hear their thoughts on this matter and get their advice was really helpful and it was a great opportunity to speak to some down to earth guys about the industry that we will soon be stepping in to.

Check out there website here:

http://www.shellsuitzombie.co.uk/