Illustrating a childhood memory

I was commissioned by Mark Pasco to illustrate a personal childhood memory of his in the form of a limited-edition book, which you can buy here.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with Mark before, as he’s the chair of the Bournstream charity - who have commissioned me on numerous occasions - view here.

Mark had written a short piece of prose and outlined some specific image ideas, but he was keen that I bring my own narrative ideas to his text.

He was aware that I’ve a love of naturalistic drawing, so was keen for me to go in that direction for this project. This was also a wonderful opportunity to experiment with hand-made textures, using print rollers, old-beaten-up brushes and gestural mark-making. I also suggested that a two-colour (green and black), risograph-printing approach would yield sympathetic results and suit the drawing style and subject matter.

16 Tonne Risograph printer, as ever, were impeccable with their attention to detail in getting the print spot-on for this. I designed the illustrations across two, double-sided A3 sheets, which were then cut and folded to create a booklet that has several reveal-flaps throughout.

See the story below, along with photos of the final print and original artwork.

Some of the original sketches and textures used to create the artwork