Monday, August 10, 2009

An Unused Decoration from “East o' The Sun, West o' The Moon”


On my recent attic rummaging I found several interesting items.
Here's a little crest that I did for “East o' The Sun, West o' The Moon”.
I remember I had an idea that I wanted the book to be lavishly decorated in the style of Gennady Spirin. However, when I tried to emulate his beautiful design elements, I found I just didn't have his skill, nor the application to do it anything like as well as I wanted to.
Luckily, the designers at Walker books steered me to work to my own strengths, such as characterization, and story-telling in my illustrations.
I'm glad this little fragment didn't make it into the finished book, but it's enlightening for me now to look back on the creative process, where what gets left out is sometimes as important as what is included.

2 comments:

Mother (Re)produces. said...

Wow. This entry really surprised me. I discovered a copy of Melisande about twenty years ago and thought 'wow, this guy is perfect.'

I still love your work; "East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon" and "Catkin" are favourites. I love Spirin too, but this post really reminds me of the pointless folly of trying to do any work other than strictly your own. What would I do with two Spirins and no PJ Lynch? I love your work and enjoy your blog very much.

PJ Lynch said...

Many thanks Mother (Re)produces,
I like your blog, you should do more drawing, you are really good.
All the best
PJ