Scrapbook Notebook 5


cover illustration by Ian Murray

Scrapbook Notebook #5 is now available on href="http://www.joomag.com/en/newsstand/scrapbook-notebook-scrapbook-5/0154212001404295496" Joomag.

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This edition originally published in 2012, features Q&A's with a selection of our illustrators, an extract of "Anna & the Juniper Dog" by Geoff Cox and illustrated by Rohan Daniel Eason, and "Victorian Values" by Garrick Webster.

Anna & the Juniper Dog

An extract from the new book by Geoff Cox illustrated by Rohan Daniel Eason.

 
illustration by Rohan Daniel Eason

Wrapped in a cormorant feather coat, Anna followed the Captain’s lantern. The sea roared loud in her ears, and salt spray sung her face. Across the sagging bridge they went, as lamprey and hagfish, lungfish and dog fish, sang from the wreckage-choked waters below, the aching, arching waves of their voices lamenting in the black-pearled air. And now Anna stood before the catarac, and its waters rushed down and leapt up from the maelstrom, cascading. Through the churning foam, a Goat Stork emerged, and stood where the Captain had been, its tangled wings stark against ice-white water, its curved horns gleaming, and beckoned her up, up, up through mist mouth and droplet veil, up until, at the top, before her rose the Juniper Dog. Anna stared at its vast red haunch, the straining boughs of its legs, the ravenous, dagger-toothed split of its muzzle. Anna Stood and the Juniper Dog saw and tore its clawed feet loose from the soil. As i crouched before and over her, its growl the world’s thunder, her heart full of terror, her heart full of joy, Anna threw her arms around its neck . . .


illustration by Rohan Daniel Eason

Extract published by kind permission of Geoff Cox and Black Maps Press

Limited edition copies for sale from href="http://blackmaps.org/#/art/16" target="_blank">Black Maps Press

Victorian Values

Normally thought of as a time of strict morals and harsh realities, creatively the Victorian era also provides a whole host of strange and beautiful imagery. Garrick Webster speaks with four artists who look back fondly on 19th century artists . . .

The British Empire was at its peak, industry was booming, and scientific endeavour was changing the way people lived. Yet the Victorians also cradled many strange superstitions and loved revisiting the myths and fairytales of Northern Europe. Perhaps it is this backdrop of contradictions and juxtapositions that fascinates so many illustrators today when they look at their Victorian counterparts. “There was a great level of optimism for human potential, which resulted in the explosion of scientific experimentation and creativity that was a signature of the time,” says up-and-coming British illustrator Hannah Magee. “But as a result of this, magic and religion were suddenly things that you didn’t have to believe in any more. You had the choice, and this opened up a whole world of macabre fantasy.” You’ll find Magee’s work is touched by a streak of the macabre, and the influence of Arthur Rackham is readily identified. She’s one of many artists who sees Rackham, Kay Nielsen and Aubrey Beardsley as the pioneers of modern storybook illustration. Another Rackham admirer is Emily Woodard, who also loves the work of 20th century artist Edward Gorey. At a young age, Woodward found herself intrigued by Victorian curiosities such as the taxidermy done by Walter Potter, and as a child she visited his Museum of Curiosities. “Exhibits included lambs with eight legs, kitten weddings, drunken squirrels playing poker, and the whole set of Who Killed Cock Robin?” she says. “This subject matter comes through in my work – literally. I like drawing animals dressed up as people doing everyday tasks, putting them in normal situations. It adds an element of wit to a story.”


illustration by Hannah Megee

Meanwhile, the influence of Aubrey Beardsley is plain to see in illustrations by Rohan Eason. The content and actual drawing style in Eason’s images might be different, but like Beardsley he works in black and white, crafting his images with great attention to the line while seeking to balance the composition in a similar way. For Eason, the influence is more than just aesthetic – a lot of it comes from Beardsley’s drawing skills. “I follow the idea that the more I learn the better I will be, and I think Beardsley too was striving for a point of perfection,” he says. “There is a real backlash against the overly conceptual and hands-off nature of today’s world. Real skills are becoming more and more important, and that’s what I want to have, a great skill.”

Even in artists whose work outwardly makes little or no visual reference to the Victorian era, there is still great appreciation of the drawing and painting techniques used in the late-19th and early 20th centuries. Grahame Baker Smith uses 21st century Photoshop to concoct his fantastical images, yet he harks back to Edmund Dulac’s paintings. He points out Dulac’s wonderful draughtsmanship, how the artist drew hands and coloured his images. Plus, according to Baker Smith, Dulac could play the nose flute. “If I were to illustrate Edgar Allen Poe or the Little Mermaid I don’t think it would look anything like a Victorian illustration,” he says. “What I do hope would be apparent is their commitment to the work and the telling of the story. That is one of the most inspiring features of these artists, there is a sense of them being ‘inside’ the story and of the exercising of their talent and skills in service of the story.” It’s within the stories depicted by the illustrators we’ve spoken to that the imagination is allowed to thrive. Modernism, postmodernism and umpteen other ‘isms’ might have come and gone since the Victorian period, but in today’s world there remain parallels with the 19th century. Lightning-fast communication and global economics might rule our destinies, but isn’t it nice to see drunken squirrels playing cards, goblins creeping up on young maidens, or a scene from Greek mythology now and again?

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