Sertum Orchidaceum
The Bookshop above was originally commissioned by Little Brown Book
Group for the cover of 'The Collected Works of AJ Fikry', by Gabrielle
Zevin (below).
A blog about my inspirations, influences and day to day activities in and around my studio.
Saturday, 28 June 2014
Monday, 16 June 2014
Photographer 'Colin Crisford' shares an insight into how he created the image for 'Alistair Grim's Odditorium' book-cover.
Having
photographed some of Su's work before, she recommended me as the
photographer for the book-cover project for Disney Hyperion Publishers
in New York. Disney required an image for the cover of their forthcoming
book 'Alistair Grim's Odditorium' by Gregory Funaro.
The
requirement was for an image that matched as closely as possible to
Vivienne To's illustration from the book (bottom left). Once Su had created the paper
model, I collected it from her and brought it back to my studio. The
original brief included smoke coming from the chimneys, snow on the
ground and a swirling blizzard.
The
snow on the ground was easy, given the scale of the model, cooking salt
worked perfectly, giving just the right amount of glisten. The smoke
was more diffiuclt as it was requested after the model had been made,
without hollow chimneys. As you can see from the photograph of the
studio set-up (below), carefully positioned out of sight behind the Odditorium,
was a copper pipe, which in turn was connected via a hose to a bee
puffer containing oak chips smouldering over charcoal. Gentle pressure
on the bee puffer bellows sent little puffs of smoke up the hose and
pipe to emerge looking as though it was coming out of the chimneys. The
lighting of the model itself was a combination of overhead flash
lighting and blue and white L.E.D.S, which Su had fitted into the model. The L.E.D.s
were mostly out of camera view apart from one which was concealed inside
the Odditorium itself to give a blue glow.
The
street lights and the falling snow were added in post production. In
the end, it was decided that the smoke and the snow proved too much of a
distraction behind the text so a simpler version, with stars added in
the night sky is what finally made it into print (bottom right).
Monday, 2 June 2014
'Beyond the Book' Exhibition Opens in London, Thursday 12th June
Wednesday, 21 May 2014
Recent Project
Art-work for Book Cover - Alistair Grim's Odditorium
Disney-Hyperion Book Publisher's commissioned me to create an art-work for a new novel by Gregory Funaro. I thought it would be interesting to share with you some photos of the work in-progress, along with the final book-cover design.
'For
twelve year old Grubb, life as a chimney sweep in the English
countryside has always been hard. Apprenticed to a brutal master sweep
named Mr. Smears, Grubb wants nothing more than a life free from sooty
toil and endless
verbal abuse. After a straw that broke the camel's back incident at a
local inn threatened his very well-being, Grubb stows away in a trunk
belonging to one of the guests. Soon the boy finds himself whisked away
by coach to the teeming streets of London and
plopped in the middle of a very odd house of mechanical wonders and
amazing magic called the Odditorium by its wildly eccentric owner
Alistair Grimm. When Grubb pops out of the bag he is allowed to stay
on, as help. And thus begin an amazing tale that is
not only filled with adventure and mystery but is also the moving story
of one boy'smagical journey toward acceptance and self-discovery'.
The novel will be released in January 2015
Tuesday, 20 May 2014
Past Project: May 2013
Commission for Fairmont Hotel Group in Abu Dhabi
I worked with my assistant 'Emma Yeo' in the Bab Al Bahr Hotel lobby for three weeks in May 2013, to create a paper sculpture of the 'Sheikh Zayed Grande Mosque'. Here are some photos of us working on it.
A view of the Sheikh Zayed Grande Mosque from the Bab al Bahr Hotel lobby
My tools and a cut-out template for paper shoes
The Domed Roofs
The Minarets
The finished sculpture on display in the lobby of the Bab al Bahr Hotel
A pop-up greeting card I designed for a workshop, based on this view of the mosque
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