Drawing for Dwelling -Mioko's legs

Illustrations for Doug Karr's novel Dwelling

I was thrilled when Hive account@dougkarr sent me the manuscript for his novel Dwelling. I printed off the first few pages and eagerly began to scribble my ideas across the text. The more I read, the more visual pictures formed in my mind, and I hoped to capture some of these images through my ink drawings.

I made a few examples of portraits in different illustrative styles and sent them to Doug. I suggested 'slightly dirty paper (coffee stained/ ink splatter) with ink drawings (characters/scenes) in a dark style', and the more I read of the novel the more this seemed the right way to go. We agreed on the style. Keen to get to work on the illustrations I pulled out my drawing inks and dip pen, then I sat down at my drawing desk ready to create my first set of drawings for the novel Dwelling.

She ruffled through old vertical files, the photographic evidence of her existence. A frenzied leap boosted her onto a chair. She fished the forgotten space above her closet. It had to be here somewhere.

Hive account@dougkarr Dwelling -CHAPTER ONE The Tenement

Drawing Mioko

The image of one of the novels characters Mioko standing on a chair. Sketched out in pencil then drawing ink applied with a dip pen.

Layers of water and ink are built up with a brush to suggest areas of shadow and light. The background is painted with darker ink tones to make the forefront stand out.