The NLI Christmas Selection Box

My thanks to Carol at the National Library of Ireland for sharing my original painting of the Lassie and the Bear from "East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon" in their Christmas Selection Box.
The image in the printed book was cropped to hide all those lovely rough edges  and I overlaid a layer of snow falling too.

Experience the Magic, at Your NLI

Thanks to Honora Faul of the Department of Prints & Drawings at the National Library of Ireland for letting me know that the NLI have chosen one of my images that they have in their collection to be part of their new front hall display.

It consists of a series of banners which are part of an exciting project called “Your NLI”.

The picture above is from "East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon" and I chose not to use it in the final book, going for a more dynamic diagonally oriented composition. I can't believe I spent so much time on a painting before deciding against using it. Now I see a lot of good things in the more formal, profile view of the Lassie on the White Bear, but the bear in the final painting is much stronger.

I added a layer of falling snow to the picture in the book.

Both originals are in the NLI collection.

Nikki Ralston, who put the project together, has done an entry on it in the NLI's own blog with a link to a very interesting slideshow of the pictures featured in the display.

An Unused Decoration from “East o' The Sun, West o' The Moon”

On my recent attic rummaging I found several interesting items.
Here's a little crest that I did for “East o' The Sun, West o' The Moon”.
I remember I had an idea that I wanted the book to be lavishly decorated in the style of Gennady Spirin. However, when I tried to emulate his beautiful design elements, I found I just didn't have his skill, nor the application to do it anything like as well as I wanted to.
Luckily, the designers at Walker books steered me to work to my own strengths, such as characterization, and story-telling in my illustrations.
I'm glad this little fragment didn't make it into the finished book, but it's enlightening for me now to look back on the creative process, where what gets left out is sometimes as important as what is included.

Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow

I've just finished reading "Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow "
by Jessica Day George.
It's a wonderful novelisation of the fairy tale "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" which I illustrated back in the early 1990s.
Jessica was good enough to acknowledge my book in her bibliography at the back of her book, and has written on her website of how my illustrations had inspired her imagination when she was younger.
For me it was the most unusual experience to be reading this terrific book and often coming across scenes or descriptions that had clearly been influenced by the work I did all those years ago.
I was very proud that my work had energised this young person's creativity, and although not many readers will go on to actually create a novel as Jessica has, it's exciting to think that my books might sometimes affect people as deeply as that.