Monday 28 March 2011

Mrs Dalloway for the Folio Society



Last year I spent a fair few months illustrating Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway for the Folio Society. Ten illustrations neatly bound in a very nice hard-back book, printed on lovely paper, put together with typical Folio Society attention to detail! Its out next month but here's a sneak preview of some of it. 
 The whole process of illustrating the book proved to be a steep learning curve for me. Lots of drafting and re-drafting and research and late nights, a far cry from my normally quite relaxed approach to illustration. I'm not going to deny that it was an incredibly stressful process, one that frequently left me feeling a bit (for 'a bit' read 'utterly') useless but in the end I'm quite pleased with how things turned out. I feel like the way I work really evolved during the project and I definitely honed my photoshop skills along the way! There are plenty more images to show you but I think I'll share the full illustrations once the book has been officially released. 


(Today is the 70th anniversary of Virginia Woolf's death. If you haven't read any of her, frankly sort of revolutionary, novels maybe now is a good time to try one! I loved Orlando as a teenager despite being faintly baffled by it!)

17 comments:

gemma correll said...

wow, that's amazing!
Congratulations! x

Eline said...

This looks very awesome, I can't wait to see the rest! Illustrating Virginia Woolf must be so amazing, she's one of my absolute favourite writers and people ever.

Zosienka said...

It looks as though you've done a marvelous job!

Julieta said...

Congratulations for such a beautiful work!!

Fiona Purves said...

Wow, it looks so beautiful! The amount of effort you put in really shows, I bet it looks even better in the flesh!

Frugal Pony said...

This is so incredible! Congratulations, what a gorgeous book.

Clara said...

Wow. Well at least the amount of effort you put into doing this paid off - the illustrations look awesome. This edition seems like a nice gift for book lovers...

mmm said...

the illustrations are beauuuuutiful lizzy! i love mrs. dalloway and virginia woolf. congratulations! you're amazing. xxx

Unknown said...

Congratulations, the book looks beautiful and the illustrations it self are very poetic, can't wait to see the book !

mysterymoor said...

I am so buying this and blogging about this. It looks awesome, and I love the book too. Bonus!

Lindsay Grime said...

super, congratulations!

Unknown said...

I'm practically drooling on my laptop (not actually, but metaphorically, yes) - I'm a big Woolf fan, and I love the illustrations!

lila Braga said...

wow, that's amazing!
Congratulations! This is a fab. book!
xox
lila

Andrew Lyons said...

This looks beautiful. I'll buy this just for your illustrations

fruzsi said...

Your work looks fantastic here! Love it! want it! :)

mysterymoor said...

linked you here :) http://theartofstayingupallnight.blogspot.com/2011/05/weekend-links.html

Jonathan Burton said...

Hey, that looks ace!