Celia Hart's blog about what's going on in and around her studio.
Art, printmaking, inspirations, gardening, vegetables, hens, landscapes, wild flowers, East Anglia, adventure, travel.

Monday 26 October 2015

Woodland Craft . . . a book jacket (behind the scenes)

A few days ago, this book arrived in the post - Woodland Craft by Ben Law (you may recall the chap on Grand Designs who but a wooden house in a wood) and a foreword by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (River Cottage, etc). 



I was excited to see it . . . as the cover illustration is a woodcut by me!


Here's a confession - I dread working on book covers and usually go out of my way to avoid doing so. It's a hangover from my previous life working for educational publishers, the book covers were the result of endless meetings and emails and the opinions of Uncle Tom Cobley and all. But that's all in the past and this time it wasn't me that was pulling the whole thing together, I 'just' had to come up with a picture. And the subject was right up my street . . . I couldn't refuse.

I'd do a woodcut, after all it's about wood so an illustration created by carving wood seems apt.

Great! They said, here's a list of what Ben would like include in the scene . . . it was a very long list!


I looked at the piles of reference photographs of Ben working and the tools he uses and the items he makes from wood harvested near his house, then I sketched them all in a scene. It was getting a bit crowded. I really loved the textures of the twigs and woven baskets so I played with the scale and brought them to the fore. On the back cover I put two frisky squirrels like the ones I see from my studio window.


There was a long pause . . . comments came from the publishers and from Ben. The Squirrels had to go (not welcome in Ben's wood!) the Rooks also got the chop, but the Long Tailed Tits could stay. A Blackbird and wood pile replaced the Squirrels on the back cover. The chair, besum and basket got moved back so they were fully visible.

At this point I paced around and sighed a lot. The composition was OK but something was missing, it needed a spark of something.

I ploughed on . . . to get all the detail in I'd need to work big. Very big! The birch plywood block is about 1 metre wide by 80 cm (3 x 2 feet). I started carving the design for the back, there are a lot of twigs!


Here's the block on my desk . . .


. . . nearly finished!


This is the finished block. I inked and hand burnished separate prints for the front and back. These where down onto thin Japanese paper that had visible fibres in it.


Here are the prints, scanned and positioned in Photoshop. I knocked back the paper texture but didn't clean it out entirely.


The publisher wanted me to add a second colour, or maybe a third and fourth? Doing this as a multi block print seemed risky (especially if last minute tweaks to the design were requested!) 

I decided to add the colours digitally using textured 'brushes' and merging the colours with the scanned print. I settled on a retro palette or apple green, yellow ochre and grey . . . it was at this point that things started to fall into place (Phew!) and I knew I could make this work. Which was a huge relief as I was almost - but not quite - regretting taking this on.

So, here's the finished cover . . .


. . . and here's the back 


The book has a paper dust jacket, underneath is a nice binding with a linen spine. You might have noticed the dust jacket looks a slightly darker colour from the book inside . . . because, well, it is. The brighter colour was all settled on and printed, then after some thought the publisher decided darker more woodland tones would be nicer - so they tweaked the colours and printed the dust jacket.


I actually like both versions. The brighter version has the retro-look of my original artwork. But the dust jacket version looks great too.


It really is a lovely book, with lots of photos and beautiful illustrations describing traditional woodland craft projects. I'm sure it will find it's way under many Christmas trees this year.



Celia
xx

PS: I've put this together on my iPad so will have to add the links later - now added x

25 comments:

  1. Beautiful C, love the colours. I have a thing for Blackbirds and he looks marvellous on the woodpile x

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  2. Looks very beautiful, can't wait to see a real life one in a shop!!

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  3. Oh it looks beautiful, you must be so proud!
    (I'd be proud if I could just work out how to blog on my iPad!)

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  4. It certainly looks good, Celia.Well done

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  5. Thank you for showing the various stages in producing this wonderful book jacket. It's so interesting to see how you arrived at the final design and colours.

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  6. sounds like hard work but worth it as its so beautiful .. Well done x

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  7. It looks wonderful Celia. Worth the hard work!

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  8. It looks really good - worth all the effort and pacing!

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  9. What an inviting book jacket! I adore it, but it's also fascinating to see the thought processes and stages of work involved.

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  10. So fascination to see the process, thanks Celia, and I love the end result. Ben Law's house in the woods has stayed in my head for a long time, I'm sure the content of the book is worthy of it's cover.x

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  11. beautiful work Celia, was it tricky carving into such a large block?

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    1. It was tricky doing the precise details - such as Ben working and the chair. I usually do woodcut for subjects that don't need to be exact - like trees!

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  12. What a wonderful result. Well worth all the effort!

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  13. Beautiful Celia. Really. My partner does woodcuts and so I know the work involved. The author was definitely a favourite of mine on Grand Designs so I wish I'd been sent a copy for review. Hmph. (Have to agree with him though on the squirrels. Sorry). Dave

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  14. Oh, it is just marvellous! Very well done Celia. I shall look for a copy from a real bookshop and probably squeal when I see you work...

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  15. I agree with you about book jacket design, but so glad that you took on this job and persevered! Marvelous outcome.

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  16. Wonderful to get a glimpse into your process, and fun to hear the remarks of the publisher and author (the squirrels have to go!). Lovely, lovely work, and great job on the digital coloring - it looks perfectly integrated!

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  17. Celia, I like the look of the book's dust cover front and back, as well at the version on the bound book itself. I completely agree with you about liking both color versions.
    How clever you were to find a way to add the desired colors to the linear wood block designs. Wow...they really were quite large wood blocks. I wondering how you manage to carve the entire surface...after all, our arms are only so long!
    I wish my Dad were still around and able to see this book. I know he would love it.

    Bravo! xo

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    1. I had to keep turning the block so the area I was cutting was nearest to me - yes, I can work up side down (the block not me!!!)

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    2. Thanks for the technique info, Celia. I know that my brother has also seen and enjoyed this post...although he's too shy to leave a comment. xo

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  18. Loved watching the whole process! And what utterly lovely results (though really that goes without saying). Always good not to have too many cooks spoiling the broth - and I'm certain that the result was all the better for it. Just gorgeous.

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  19. It's lovely! Like you I like both colour versions, although (surprisingly to me) I think the darker version is my favourite - it's a close run thing though :)

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  20. It's been so interesting to read how you worked from first brief through to final proof - so much work involved! Really beautiful end product though and lovely colours. I hope the book does well.

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