inkymolewhereitwent

[inkymolewhereitwent]

Closeup of a very detailed book cover in progress and on my desk right now. Not yet finished! @bareps @ciablog

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Piece of work for my friend Meghan in Port reading, NJ. She had the digital file to make prints for each of her little school pupils for the end of term, and the original for her wall! All-ink, one-take, nothing digital. @bareps @ciablog

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About to be united with the author of the book it was made for: original artwork for Midnight Without A Moon, out next year.

I love it when artwork makes its way to its rightful home.

[inkymolewhereitwent]

Original artwork on its way to the bride and groom! Close-ups of the ink-on-paper - I shall post the finished invite when I get a copy!

[inkymolewhereitwent]

Just united the commissioner of this piece (the head of the company that makes Diamine inks) with her artwork, A3 and all-ink on paper. I firmly believed it would be better on her office wall than in my archive! Ssh though, it’s a surprise. But I know she’ll squeak for joy!

[inkymolewhereitwent]

The original ink drawing for Bernard and Desarae’s wedding invitation has just flown off to Rhode Island to join the art created for their Save the Date cards, which they have hanging on their wall. They’ve been married just over two years. It is one of my favourite pieces ever!

[inkymolewhereitwent]

Red Tears  remains one of my favourite book covers, and dealt with the harrowing subject of self-harming in an extremely sensitive way but without sentimentalising it, and certainly without hiding from the grim realities of the subject. It pre-dates the blog, so has never featured anywhere till today.

Written by Joanne Kenrick - now Jo Cotterill - this was the first time I’d been entrusted with a ‘serious’ subject - I’d been doing masses of chick-lit and adult female fiction, so I suppose this was my early taste of teen fiction. Although, I had done a cover for Naomi Wolf which sadly became a photograph in the end!

I was determined not to make it maudlin or off-putting, and it definitely couldn’t be too graphic. I played with several ideas, starting rather abstract, using the ink to try to represent a swirling mass of concentric feelings, and then fairly quickly we settled on the one with the back background. The hints are there, but they’re very subtle, and the black lends the book a definite gravity. I was trying to suggest too the connectivity of everything - the way problems and issues and feelings and events all ball up together and become impossible to disentangle, till you can’t see the wood for the trees. 

It was published in 2007.

Many years later I am happy to have united Jo with her original artwork this week, most of which she’d never seen, in return, this time, for a donation to our chosen charity Mind. The artwork will be living at her house now! Which only feels right.

http://jocotterill.com

[inkymolewhereitwent]

If you'd like to be reconnected with the artwork you commissioned, or which was created for your company or the book you wrote, send me an email! If I've still got it (and the chances are I have), and if I'm not so attached to it that you'd have to rip it from my stiffening, chilly hands, then I will probably be happy to re-home it! x

[inkymolewhereitwent]

Rachel Riley has been with me for about three years, and I recently did the seventh and last cover for her, which was a sad moment. Rachel's a character made by Jo Nadin, who is now the owner of the pages and pages of coloured art work I've done for her novels, from mangy dogs to VW vans to knickers and bras. Thanks to her, I now know I CAN draw dogs if I need to, and doing thundercrackers is a breeze. The whole lot now resides at her marvellous creative home in Bath - rather there than my dusty crates of artwork! This one as felt tips! Again...

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It was with utter joy and relief that, seven years after producing this cover, the author Susie Day was as uncomfortable with the published version of her book 'Girl Meets Cake' as I was. Created in one take (unlike Dear Scarlett, mentioned below), this cover was entirely made on A3 paper of felt tip pen and coloured fine liner. The published cover was very different and, as is sadly often the say, was edited hard so that the entire cake and teapot assembly was removed and the background colour changed, along with the addition of a rather unsubtle digital gingerbread man. Unfortunately the original work is actually framed on my wall at home, so I couldn't offer her that, but I DID send her a beautiful print instead. Susie and I hadn't spoken before, but it was great to find out that all along, she'd agreed withe me! I wonder how many more authors I've worked for (at over 300 books) would rather have gone with 'the original'?

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This black ink artwork was given unto the safety of the author Fleur Hitchcock. She and I got chatting on Facebook (how many relationships seem like this seem to start actually!) and she was keen to have the parts that made up the whole cover. Often a cover isn't produced in one go, being a moveable compilation of ingredients.  These are all made with nib pen and ink.

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Rae Earl is now the proud owner of these original daubings for OMG! Is this Actually My Life? and TV’s My Mad Fat Diary. The artwork was made with Belton and Molotov spray cans, felt tip pens and fine liners. Check the Santa vajazzle!

http://metro.co.uk/2014/02/03/my-mad-fat-diary-author-rae-earl-im-proud-my-character-masturbates-on-tv-4285953/