Although originally intended to be an information graphics project in the back of my mind, it has slowly manifested itself into quite an illustration heavy one. The illustrations form the main body of work and carry both narratives through the book. When deciding on how the book would read, what length was comfortable and how it was to be constructed I decided to create 40 illustrations. These illustrations are divided equally between the 'Printer's narrative' and the 'Titanic's narrative' ie. 20 each. Some illustrations work together with the type elements, some are independent, but as a whole they bring the book together and create a linear progression through out. They act as story tellers in their own right.
They are heavily influenced by photographs of the ship and by photography of the period. All the illustrations are black and white. They assume vantage points, sometimes detailed, very close to the action from the point of view of a character and sometimes more removed, quieter, taking in the landscape. As linocuts, they are carved quite graphic in style with clean lines and interesting compositions. Linoleum was specifically chosen as the means of producing the illustrations due to the time period concerned. From Wikipedia "Although linoleum as a floor covering dates to the 1860s, the linocut printing technique was used first by the artists of Die Brücke in Germany between 1905-13 where it had been similarly used for wallpaper printing. They initially described their prints as woodcuts however, which sounded more respectable."
Over time I decided to create the illustrations square instead of portrait or landscape. The book was calling out to be illustrated landscape but I felt that the square offered a more interesting perspective, the book already being landscape in format. Each illustration is contained by a frame of approx. 6mm. This was an addition which I made after several weeks planning the thumbnails. The images that follow are four proof prints, 15 have been completed to date. I'll try get more up tomorrow. Each one takes between 10 and 20 hours to complete so progress has been quite slow. They measure 230mm x 230mm.
They are heavily influenced by photographs of the ship and by photography of the period. All the illustrations are black and white. They assume vantage points, sometimes detailed, very close to the action from the point of view of a character and sometimes more removed, quieter, taking in the landscape. As linocuts, they are carved quite graphic in style with clean lines and interesting compositions. Linoleum was specifically chosen as the means of producing the illustrations due to the time period concerned. From Wikipedia "Although linoleum as a floor covering dates to the 1860s, the linocut printing technique was used first by the artists of Die Brücke in Germany between 1905-13 where it had been similarly used for wallpaper printing. They initially described their prints as woodcuts however, which sounded more respectable."
Over time I decided to create the illustrations square instead of portrait or landscape. The book was calling out to be illustrated landscape but I felt that the square offered a more interesting perspective, the book already being landscape in format. Each illustration is contained by a frame of approx. 6mm. This was an addition which I made after several weeks planning the thumbnails. The images that follow are four proof prints, 15 have been completed to date. I'll try get more up tomorrow. Each one takes between 10 and 20 hours to complete so progress has been quite slow. They measure 230mm x 230mm.
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