This week I received copies of the finished Illusionology book, soon to be
published by Templar in the Spring.
It has one of the most lavish covers I've ever been involved in, with 3D
animation, jewels, embossing and foiling - every trick known to man (and
printers). Look out for it in the shops and be awed (or horrified, if you
are not given to excess).
I was responsible for a good number of interior illustrations - here's my
favourite, the disappearing moth woman. As revealed in the photographs, the
spreads are packed with pull-out tricks and things, as well as other
pictures by Levi Pinfold and Tomislav Tomic.
Despite the Steampunky cover, the book concerns real-life magicians and the
art of illusion, particularly the late Victorian period and early 20th
century.

There's an excellent tree nearby that I've been meaning to incorporate into
a picture for a while. I finally had an idea and popped down to get a better
look and take some photographs; unfortunately the poor old tree had been
battered by the recent gales and its lovely sculptural branches were lying
in forlorn heaps on the ground. My original concept was redundant, but
almost immediately this idea appeared.
I don't know whether this chap is an 18th century minstrel, or someone who
has watched too many Adam Ant videos, either way I wanted to do something
dark...

Below are the various stages of creation. I've put the original rough and a
print up on Etsy, along with a couple of other items.

I'm guest blogging on the David Fickling Books site this week.
http://www.davidficklingbooks.com/blog/
As my contribution concerns the Pendle witches, I have an excuse to reveal
this very early rough for the Spook's Apprentice series, made before I
decided to go for the silhouette/woodcut kind of style that illustrates the
series. This is the charming Mother Malkin, with her favourite snack - live
rat.

Here is a small selection of chapter heading illustrations from Spook's
Blood, the ninth (I think) in the Wardstone Chronicles.
There's also a small 'behind the scenes' piece which shows how the pictures
are developed. First I draw the scene in pencil, scan it in, maybe move a
few things about, then slap a piece of paper over the monitor and trace out
a line drawing. With Photoshop's paint bucket tool, I quickly dump in the
blacks and make any necessary refinements digitally. In the case of these
miffed witches, I made a complete mess of the one in the background and had
to redraw her, then patch her in to the final image. Finally, I run the
whole thing through a dust and scratches filter, which smoothes everything
out and produces a more natural feel.

I've put a couple more originals from the archives up for sale on Etsy.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/davidwyatt
Archives sounds rather grand - they're actually from random piles of stuff
distributed around the house; in lofts, under beds and in drawers. When I
grow up I hope to have a room full of plan chests with everything
categorized and cross-referenced, but I still work sat on the carpet like a
giant toddler so that's not going to happen very soon...

This week, there's also a new website for Frogspell up, with all sorts of
magic-related shenanigans and a video of me drawing said Frog. Bizarrely,
there's also a video of me drawing a strange man in a hat, which was a test
to see if my camera worked and has nothing to do with the book so I don't
know what that's doing there. To add to the strangeness you can also hear
Hildegard Von Bingen in the background because I hadn't realised it recorded
sound. http://www.frogspell.co.uk

I needed to take a break from illustrating Joseph Delaney's next book
(Spook's Blood), so I took the opportunity to make another 'Local
Characters' portrait.
Like Comfort in Quilting, the subject is a real person (and a real dog)
going about their normal business; in this case a multi-award winning writer
who likes to start the day pretty much in the fashion depicted.
I conceived the idea a few months ago, but waited until now to paint it, in
order to catch the autumnal (best time of year without doubt) atmosphere.
Below are a few of the stages. Unfortunately, I made a bit of a mess of the
bottom segment and had to paint some extra leaves separately which were
stuck on in Photoshop. When I have the patience I'll cut them out and stick
them on for real.
Now I've had my leafy fun, it's back to the Boggarts and Lamias and Fiends
of the Wardstone Chronicles...

I have launched an Etsy site.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/davidwyatt

 

Here I will be selling prints and cards of my Local Characters series, as well as the occasional original piece of art.

To start with, there's a napping dragon. This was done a few years ago as part of the abandoned Flights of Fantasy book, and is one of a number of completed illustrations for the first chapter. Below are a few of the other pictures, about a girl who discovers she has an unusual heritage...

 

Last winter, along with Art Director Nghiem Ta, I designed the cover of
Templar's new 'Ology' book, Illusionology.
Photographs don't do it justice - the central image is a freaky thing called
a lenticular, which makes everything three dimensional. Not only that, the
white rabbit changes into a brass mechanical version of itself when the book
is tilted.
After the cover was finished, I started work on the insides; a mixture of
pen and ink and colour illustrations. The book is not due out until next
spring (these Ologies are very complicated to produce) but I'll probably
reveal a few of the interior pictures over the next couple of months.

Recently, Palace of the Damned hit the shelves (see cover image in previous
post) and already Mr Shan has another book for me to illustrate!
This one is called Brothers to the Death, and features the continuing capers
of Larten Crepsley.

I sat in front of Peter Jackson's King Kong with a sketchbook to get some
1930's New York reference, helped along with some alarming photographs of
skyscraper construction workers perched on impossibly high girders. They
might have been eating sandwiches on a park bench, such was their
nonchalance of the vomit-inducing distance between them and the ground.
I drew me standing on a box for the main character, but had to make the suit
up as I don't own anything quite so snappy.

The original version was very red, but it was decided Larten didn't stand
out enough (along with the liberal splashes of blood) so the sky was
changed. It could be described as 'bruised' which is in keeping with the
visceral nature of the tale...

Here is the cover to the Ballad of Old Goat and Heron, along with the 2 pencil drawings that preceded the final painting (which was achieved via the media of watercolour and coloured pencil).

There was a bit of a panic yesterday when it was revealed I was due to guest-blog over at David Fickling Books. Luckily, I've just bought a Kindle and I managed to scrape together some thoughts about that. You can read it here.