I happened to make a limited run of two-colour screen prints of Sharpened Pencils, suitable to frame.
Printed in uncompromising coal black, and dazzling school-pencil yellow, this lavish A1 print is impressed upon a sumptuous cream-ish 120gsm Munken paper, stamped and signed in graphite (what else?).
Limited to an edition of 50, this screen print will be available via the Little Shop in June.
The parts of a book don’t need to be known for reading, but it may help make you interesting. World Book Day, 2023.
Tom the cat from next door has been given a collar with his name and phone number because he has been going missing. A day later there were calls from people who have been feeding him for years, pleased to have a name to call him.
Tom got used to the collar very quickly, but I haven’t. He appears to be wearing some fancy jewellery, all dressed up for an occasion.
Jewellery: Tiffany & Co. Faux fur coat: model’s own.
I was given a nice new pencil sharpener. It’s brass, has 3 settings and a little pouch to carry it. It’s a very simple mechanism and it works like a charm. It’s a welcome addition to my sharpening portfolio. Thank you!
See a video about sharpening and cutting things.
There must be some mistake: The Natural History Museum’s book Dippy: The Nation’s favourite dinosaur is shortlisted in the Cultural Enterprises Awards in the Best Children’s Publication category. Surely, Dippy should be on the tall list.
Waterhouse: the mouse featured in Dippy. Even if he was as high as an elephant’s eye, he wouldn’t see eye to eye with Dippy.
Rubricating has been around for ages. It must have been tedious for scribes working only in black ink after a while, and what better way to highlight something than to change its colour. But did it have to be red? Was there not a less laborious colour to mix? This is how red ink was made at the time:
To prepare white-flake, get some sheets of lead beaten out thin, place them dry in a hollow piece of wood and pour in some warm vinegar or urine to cover them. Then, after a month, take off the cover and remove whatever white there is, and again replace it as at first. When you have a sufficient amount and you wish to make red lead from it, grind this flake-white on a stone without water, then put it in two or three new pots and place it over a burning fire. You have a slender curved iron rod, fitted at one end in a wooden handle and broad at the top, and with this you can stir and mix this flake-white from time to time. You do this for a long time until the red lead becomes visible. (from Theophilus' De diversis artibus).
But it would have been worth the effort considering the hours spent on the black parts of the book or manuscript.
I used a powerful computer and a pencil to mix mine. Took about 15 seconds.
Titanosaur: Life as the biggest dinosaur is published by the Natural History Museum (London) in conjunction with a NEW exhibition.
It’s a little book about a big animal (Patagotitan mayoram) that was discovered in Patagonia in 2014. Well, fossilised bones were discovered in Patagonia – but it was enough to help scientists flesh out this enormous vegetarian.
The story is told through the eyes of Waterhouse the mouse (mus musculus) who is searching for the creature he understands is visiting the Museum (magnum aedificium). But can he find him?
This is the first time I’ve drawn a monkey puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana) and I was able to spend time in the summer (aestas) drawing the Museum building from the gardens, and from photos taken from across the road (via). I used this virtual map which helped me get a mouse’s perspective of the interior.
The illustrations were made with an oil pencil, graphite, ink and gouache and a lot of collage with kraft paper. When the two main subjects in a book vary so greatly in scale, it can be tricky to depict them together in one spread without resorting to exaggerated perspective and other tricks and I think I achieved this with all the dexterity of a patagotitan on ice skates. We printed the book in two inks: black and a neon green ink.
Video trailer for Titanosaur: Life as the Biggest Dinosaur
© David Mackintosh/Natural History Museum, London. 2022.
The jacket reverse and case.
Titanosaur joins Dippy, also published by the Natural History Museum.
Waterhouse, the resident mouse.
Front entrance to the Museum.
The monkey puzzle tree.
Tom towers over titanosaur and is much fuzzier.
As far as international days go, International Handwriting Day is a nice reminder of a fading art. Generally, I mean. I know there must be other people who enjoy writing with a pen on a piece or paper and telling others about it, but I don’t think we’re generating numbers for that crowd.
I can’t remember the last time someone asked me “Can I borrow a pen?”. And I have a lot of pens too. In fact I was given another as recently as Christmas. I’m probably the ideal person to ask that.
I’m writing this on a keyboard, it’s a more direct route to the computer, but I could have written it longhand too. You may have been more keen to look at the handwritten page for an aesthetic scrutiny of the squiggles and shapes. You wouldn’t even need to read the text. You can’t say that about typewritten text.
Actually, you can.
Visitors’ Book entries for book cover design exhibition c1992. I have published these already, but I enjoy seeing them. Most of these entries are from school groups who visited the exhibition and the pages reflect the chaos that often accompanies enthusiastic groups of kids on a school excursion. I’ve said it before, but if I ever run into you in the street, Jumpin’ Jack Flash, you better be prepared to defend yourself.
