The Midnight Hare: Milo up the Tree

This is a detailed rough painting for “The Midnight Hare”. A little whimsical, the boy, he should perhaps be a bit less pretty, more sparky, as he shows plenty of energy in the story. But the slight air of melancholy is OK, and I quite like this person in the picture.  When the page is full of leaves, and with a less magenta background, it should look nice.  I am still trying to work out how to use colour to show that it is night during much of the story –  but a summer night, when much can be seen – it needs to be seen, otherwise there is no story.  I always find myself tending towards blue shades, whereas my favourite colours at the moment are sepia and golds and dusky reds, with touches of dark, almost black, green.

For a long time I have struggled with how to deal with the text: in the beginning, it was quite separate from the painting, and the paintings went off the page to a bleed.  Then I incorporated the text within the pictures, which seemed an obvious thing to do.  But then I don’t know quite how it happened, but I changed my mind again.  Most of the pictures will not have a bleed, they will fade out to a hand-drawn, not strict margin; and the text will be quite separate.  I think that then the pictures should stand out against the white background, and the text will be much easier to read and quite separate.  I have been setting this up as a rough on Photoshop and it is settling in to being like that.

This is the great advantage of having enough time to think about what I am doing, rather than having to produce work to a dealine, because I need to pay the bills.  Not very artistic, that, but nevertheless, desperation has also produced one of the books I wrote that I do actual like: “Parchment House” (though the book wasn’t published until a long time later, when that particular desperation had long passed).  However, that is for another blog.  I do have a deadline for “The Midnight Hare”. A year from now the work will be at the printers.

Trees Beside The Old Railway Track 3

A secret track, running down to Kershopefoot, above Liddel Water, on a path lined with orchids. Never encountered a soul down there, but notice the prints of horses in the mud.

Trees Beside The Old Railway Track 2

Trees Beside The Old Railway Track 1

Evening Light in Liddesdale

Faraway Horse

Cheviots, Tweed, Farmland

Fishing Boat Across the Border River

Peacock, Buddleia, Brambles by River Tweed

Light on the Far Tree