Notebook Sketches - The Travels of Sir John Mandeville
This is a a composite of two pages from one of last year's notebooks, when I was reading the Travels of Sir John Mandeville, a mad Medieval travel guide of sorts that inspired (in part) Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus. Full of fantastical creatures, lost cities, Biblical references, talking trees, etc, etc. Rich pickings for an illustrator!
In this image you will see, amongst other things, the great Pharos (light-house) of Alexandria, a pyramid surmounted by a sphere, mythical Christian king Prester John, the Tyburn tree and Pismires (giant flesh-eating ants) hoarding a mountain of gold and treasures. Plus lots of the imagined minutiae of life in the Middle Ages.
Then loosely coloured up in Photoshop. I would love so much to illustrate this book (any Publishers out there, take note!).
6 comments:
That's fine MC! Thank you so much, I really appreciate that!
Oh! You have no idea how much this illustration makes the heart of this medievalist sing! Delightful!
Diolch jombolom!! Your kind words have made my heart sing
Funnily enough, just back from Aberystwyth yesterday after a wonderful week-end...
I saw you at the exhibition opening :) I'm one of those people who disappears in a crowd, but I saw you from my seat. Wasn't it a magical occasion? As you might expect, I'm utterly captivated by Clive's 'Saints and their Beasts' series. Hope you had a good journey back: hwyl!
The invention in this page of vignettes beggars belief. Bee skep, tower of Babel and owl on a stump, all delight the eye with clever simplification and deft rendering. Gorgeous!
Mandeville! This is a frolic, just finding all the little charming details... Hope somebody out there in Publishing Land is taking notice.
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