The Spook's Apprentice

I've been working on some book illustrations for a portfolio update, so I picked a few scenes from The Spook's Apprentice by Joseph Delaney, which is a book I really enjoyed. Originally I planned to do these in gel pen, but I realised I'm still very happy with the illustrations from The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray that I did in that style, so I tried something a bit different and went for thicker cross-hatching done entirely in dip pen. I also tried a few insets instead of sticking with only full-page illustrations, and experimented a bit with new compositions.

Of course, any kind of horror illustration is still firmly within my comfort zone. Up next, something a bit lighter and more child-friendly.

More Poison

These are the three portrait illustrations.  One of my favourite things about them was the hatching on the backgrounds, but it takes so long to do that I haven't done anything in that style lately.  I should probably use it more.

Poison

I thought you might be interested in these, they're illustrations for Poison by Chris Wooding that I did on my art foundation course (2008).  They're still some of my favourites of my own work, even if the choice of 3 landscape, 3 portrait was ill-advised.  I'll upload the portrait ones later.