the beasts of Glimmerglass

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The second stage of Glimmerglass preparation finds me trialling collage images drawn from maquettes. Above, a dragon’s head study is assembled from collage papers imprinted with Conté pencil rubbings, a technique known as frottage. I’ve made the collage on a black ground, though I don’t yet know whether I’ll be using black grounds for the page vignettes. If I do then they’ll be interestingly shaped and framed, and not plain squares or rectangles.

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Below, a dragon made from a combination of collage papers worked in black gouache with rough brushes, and frottage papers taken from old lino-blocks. The goal is always to create as much variety of texture as I can manage. The printing for the book will be a straightforward black on white photo-lithography process, and so tonal values have to be suggested by density of mark-making alone. I like the spotted wings of this collage. I feel as though this dragon would be vividly coloured, and that can be suggested even in a black and white image by diverse patterning.

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Above: the dragon image started with simple drawings. As yet I haven’t made a dragon maquette, though I surely will.

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Above: an exceedingly rough thumbnail sketch shows the skeleton tree-of-life layout for the front Glimmerglass cover. A riot of flora and fauna barely contains a landslide of lettering. I see this as being a negative image, with a black ground enhancing the silvery filagree on top of it. Other creatures planned for the front include a lion, a goose and a salamander, with the minotaur intended for the back where more flowering branches will frame a panel for the ‘blurb’. However, these are early thoughts, and everything may yet change.

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