First Steps in Book Illustrations

SENSE OF ENDING

June 2023 was the hottest June on record according to NASA’s global temperature analysis. Although July was much better for the Netherlands, elsewhere the world was on fire or boiling. It gave me a sense of ending.

We all are in this together. Because your house didn’t burn down, your environment at large (air quality, biodiversity, availability of water) has suffered. Clean air and fresh water have become scarcer and thus at one point these commodities will become a more expensive.

You know why biodiversity matters? One reason is that viruses and bacteria need animals (as hosts) and when there are less animals -in variety relating to numbers- viruses and bacteria jump to humans, and as a result –here we go again– another pandemic.

We need clean air, lots of vegetation (trees are air-cons), plenty of fresh water, and a huge reservoir of animals and insects. Noah was a wise man boarding all animals he possibly could find.

Noah’s Ark is a painting by Cajetan Roos (1690, Rome – 1770, Vienna), was an Italian landscape painter of German descent.

SENSE OF BEGINNING

What gave me a sense of beginning was that my daughter -she is an aspiring writer- asked for illustrations for her (future) books. This opened a whole new world. I need to acquaint myself with new knowledge, new techniques, and book publishing related history and fashions to make book illustrations.

Thus, I started with studying standardized sizes relating to different genres. Size, however, is not a make-break; apart from common standard measurements there are options. That said, I like my illustrations to fit into standard measurements (avoiding distortions) and thus had to do some math.

Then there is typeface. My daughter would love to have a personalized letter type, which implies that I must design 26 letters, capitals, lowercase, 10 numbers, ampersands, etc. I will run into 101 challenges that will give me a sense of learning a new trade, thus a sense of beginning. It made me think of William Morris who set up his own Kelmscott Press and designed its hallmark typefaces, decorative borders, letters, and ornaments. How very inspiring!

CREATIVITY & INNOVATION

It is important to have a greater sense of beginning than a sense of ending. Learning new creative skills and setting ambitious creative goals helps. But that won’t be enough to compensate for the excesses of capitalism, global warming, and the ever growing divide between haves and have-nots. Some even refer to the end of the Anthropocene (the time during which humans have had a substantial impact on our planet). We will need to become extremely innovative and creative in minimizing our harmful impact on our planet.

Paula Kuitenbrouwer

at Etsy

at Instagram

Paula Kuitenbrouwer, Drs. M.A. Paula holds an MA degree in Philosophy and works as an artist in Utrecht. She is the owner of mindfuldrawing.com, a website with academic essays, short articles, and most of all: artworks. Paula’s pen and pencils are always fighting for her attention nevertheless they are best friends; Paula likes her art to be brainy and her essays to be artistic. Contact Paula freely for commissions.

HAVE A LOOK AT MY ANGELS’ WING POSTS:

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