A Boggart with a Bag of Moonshine

Here's another from the same period when I had just left college and I was using a strong black ink line to define my forms. It was a technique inspired by the wonderful art of Arthur Rackham and others working during the Golden Age of illustration at the start of the twentieth century.

This was in fact the cover image from my very first book, A Bag of Moonshine  by Alan Garner.

I was very fortunate with that book as it won me the Mother Goose Award and it very much set me on my way as a young illustrator.

The character above is a Boggart, which is similar to a Goblin but a little bit nicer. Below are some of my Goblins that I did when I was considering illustrating The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald.

Culture File Interview

This is definitely my last post about Christmas till next December...I promise.
Here's a link to an interview I did with Regan Hutchins of Lyric FM's Culture File.
Regan and I had a nice chat about the Golden Age of Illustration, and about creating images for Dickens' spectres of Christmas Future.

"Peter Pan" by JM Barrie

Another classic text that I have come close to illustrating on a number of occasions is Peter Pan, by JM Barrie.

Here are a couple of character studies I did in 1995 when a new illustrated version was being discussed.

I think my Peter is a bit lame, but I am really pleased with Captain Hook.

Arthur Rackham got some terrific imagery out of Barrie's Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, but I suspect I would have found it all a wee bit soppy for my liking.