Oh I do like to be beside the seaside

'Bathing Machine' is finished just in time for the end of April deadline.

I didn’t want to go down the route of cogs and engines so decided to base my contribution on Victorian Bathing Machines which were designed to preserve the modesty of well brought up Victorian ladies at the beach.

For the artwork I used a palette of the process colours, cyan, magenta and yellow, with the addition of white. It’s bright and cheerful which works with the stylized figures. I was aiming for a children’s illustration type of feel.

The book is digitally printed and assembled as a simple concertina which fits into the wheelbase of the bathing machine to hold it shut.

ABC

I’ve been making a book for the NWBA theme for April/May which is ABC.

It put me in mind of The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie so I thought I’d write my own mystery story.

In the eighties we inherited a lot of books from my parents in law, mass produced hardback books from the forties and fifties. Most of them were red (they had lost their dust covers over time).  I wanted to try and reference that sort of a feel with my book.

You can find the full version of the text here 

I’ve also been working on the ‘areyoubookenough’ monthly challenges. This month‘s theme is ‘Machine’.

I didn’t want to work with cogs and mechanics and decided to use bathing machines as my subject matter. I made a small mockup

and more detailed drawings

which were going to be turned into collagraph plates. But then I sliced open my thumb whilst harvesting rhubarb. It’s healing up fine but I can’t use a knife or scalpel for fine work. The deadline is the end of the month so I think I’m going to end up painting instead - less pressure on the sore bit.