BRIEF
For The Book Illustration Competition 2016, participants have been set the challenging task of illustrating a new edition of the popular modern classic War Horse by Michael Morpurgo. First published in Great Britain by Kaye & Ward in 1982, War Horse tells the story of Joey, a young farm horse sold to the army and thrust into the midst of the war on the Western Front. The brief requires five different illustrated scenes and a binding design.
METHOD
The book itself is set during the war in 1914. As it is a story from history I wanted my illustration technique to reflect a much older method to suit the story. I researched traditional illustration techniques and came across print making, after lots of experementation Idecided to go with Lino Printing to create my final images for the book.
SOLUTION
Reading the book revealed the gradual theme of a build up of horror and fear for Joey as the story progresses, and how he then overcomes this once it reaches its climax. I wanted to tell this side of the story within my images so using lino printing I gradually got rougher and less perfect with my prints throughout each illustration, deliberately cutting the blocks out rougher from image one to image three, using different pressing methods when block was on paper to create harsher prints that held alot more tension, then once the tension was at its climax on image three image four and five were less rough and gradually got softer again.
