Happy Valentines Day!

What better day than to look at this superbly produced book, titled 'Arrows of Love'...  This superb book was originally published to accompany the Quentin Blake exhibition titled Arrows of Love which took place in 2018 at the House of Illustration. This was an exhibition of Quentin Blake’s rarely-seen nudes consisting of 18 exuberant pencil drawings depicting women avoiding or embracing Cupid’s arrow. The original works are pencil on paper and were drawn circa 1974.

Having opened on Valentine’s Day, this exhibition reveals Quentin Blake's personal reflections on the joy, folly and sorrow of love with his characteristic humour. You can read about the exhibition here.

The size of the book is 265x220mm, portrait and comprises of 64pp plus endpapers. The text pages are printed on our Omnia, Natural 120gsm which gives the book a 'toned' look but which sympathetically reproduces the pencil illustrations.

The books starts with arrows...

Click on images to enlarge

Click on images to enlarge

Click on images to enlarge

Birds eye view showing the sewn sections and the 'quarter bound' binding. Spine is 7mm

Detail showing reproduction of the pencil illustration....

This is a beautifully produced publication, which you can buy here. Printing is by Jigsaw Colour, who sadly are no longer trading but Paul Martin handled the project, who is now at Identity Printers.

https://www.quentinblake.com/
http://www.houseofillustration.org.uk/home

Posted by Justin Hobson 14.02.2022

Arrows of love

This superb book was published to accompany the Quentin Blake exhibition titled Arrows of Love which took place last year at the House of Illustration. This was an exhibition of Quentin Blake’s rarely-seen nudes consisting of 18 exuberant pencil drawings depicting women avoiding or embracing Cupid’s arrow. The original works are pencil on paper and were drawn circa 1974.

Having opened on Valentine’s Day, this exhibition reveals Quentin Blake's personal reflections on the joy, folly and sorrow of love with his characteristic humour. You can read about the exhibition here.

The size of the book is 265x220mm, portrait and comprises of 64pp plus endpapers. The text pages are printed on our Omnia, Natural 120gsm which gives the book a 'toned' look but which sympathetically reproduces the pencil illustrations.

The books starts with arrows...

Click on images to enlarge

Click on images to enlarge

Click on images to enlarge

Birds eye view showing the sewn sections and the 'quarter bound' binding. Spine is 7mm

Detail showing reproduction of the pencil illustration....

This is a beautifully produced publication, which you can buy here. The excellent printing is by Jigsaw Colour who are based in Bermondsey, London

https://www.quentinblake.com/
http://www.houseofillustration.org.uk/home
http://www.jigsawcolour.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 30.05.2019

Linda Kitson - Drawings and Projects

This is the catalogue for last years' exhibition at the House of Illustration. Linda Kitson’s line drawings have recorded seminal moments in British history. This exhibition and catalogue charts a lifetime of putting pen to paper including her drawings on the front line of the Falklands War, as the first woman artist commissioned to accompany troops into combat. The reportage works on show lead up to her most recent, innovative ventures on the iPad. The exhibition was curated by Quentin Blake, who has known Kitson since she was first a student at the Royal College of Art.   

The size of the catalogue is 240mm square. There is a 4pp cover and 48pp text all printed on our Omnia. An important factor for the publication was to capture the narrative and the sensitivity of the work, whilst ensuring there is no compromise on the reproduction of the artwork. Omnia was chosen as it would faithfully reproduce the artworks whilst still lending the tactility of the original uncoated materials used.

Click on images to enlarge

Cover is printed on 320gsm and the 48pp text is printed on Omnia 150gsm.

Omnia performed brilliantly throughout the publication, ensuring that the fine detail in many of the illustrations was reproduced superbly. In stark contrast is the last spread which is one of Linda Kitson's iPad pieces, which quite literally jumps off the page!

The book is section sewn with a nice square spine..

The catalogue has been beautifully printed and finished by Jigsaw Colour.
You can read more about Linda's exhibition here:
https://www.houseofillustration.org.uk/whats-on/past-exhibitions/linda-kitson-drawings-and-projects

www.jigsawcolour.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 08.05.2018

Drawn By Hand - Quentin Blake



Quentin Blake is one of the best-known illustrators of his generation. Drawn by Hand is an exhibition held at the Shiba Gallery of The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. The show looks at individual works he has produced in the past decade: book illustrations, etchings, lithographs, drawings and works done for hospitals in various and contrasting media.

As Quentin Blake points out in his introduction, all of the pictures in the catalogue were drawn by hand, though the later printing and dissemination often relied on modern technology - and that's the point of the show, he shows work done by scratchy pens, inks, watercolours, quills, etching, lithograph etc.

 

This is the catalogue for the exhibition by Quentin Blake.  Each section explores a different drawing technique.

 

The publication is produced in a sketchbook size. The size is 210x165mm, portrait and is saddle stitched. It has a 4pp cover on 300gsm and a 36pp text on 150gsm. The material chosen is our StarFine Natural White, which is a neutral white, uncoated paper and board range. The paper gives the project the correct look and feel of a sketchbook, sympathetic with the subject without being a pastiche. A particularly lovely touch is the "round cornered" corners - below:

Design is by Burgess Studio. Creative director is Alexis Burgess and the designer on the project is Dan Jones.

The excellent print is by Principal Colour - this is a really neat and tidy saddle stitched job and the round cornering in particular is smart.

http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/article.html?3680
http://quentinblake.com/
www.burgess-studio.co.uk
www.principalcolour.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 15.08.2013

Jobs from the past - Number 34

Regular followers of this blog will know that my first post of every month is a "job from the past" so that I can show some of the really good work from years gone by...

The Quentin Blake Gallery of Illustration - 2003

This is the introduction and sponsorship brochure for the Quentin Blake Gallery of Illustration - which has become the House of Illustration. The House of Illustration is the world’s first dedicated home for the art of illustration; from adverts to animation, picture books to political cartoons and scientific drawings to fashion design. The organisation puts on exhibitions, runs competitions, works with schools and organises events with some of the country’s leading illustrators. The main ambition is to create a permanent home to celebrate the past, present and future of illustration.

The size of the publication is 143x125mm, Landscape. It uses our Modigliani, Neve which has a "feltmark" texture similar to that of a watercolour paper which gives it exactly the right feel. Needless to say, the timeless illustrations are by Quentin Blake...

Of particular interest is the the way the job is bound. It has a 4pp cover (with a spine) on Modigliani, Neve 260gsm and a 24pp text on Modigliani, Neve 200gsm. The text pages are individual leaves bound with an elastic band (which is black and is made from "round" elastic) held in with a notch on the head and foot of the book. This enabled the brochure  to be easily updateable. 

Detail, showing rubber band and "notched" text and cover:

The project was designed by BOB Design. Creative Directors on the project were Alexis Burgess and Mireille Burkhardt. Lexi now runs his own studio in East London, Burgess Studio.

The job was printed by Reg Davis at Pica Press based in Tonbridge in Kent but he has since retired and the company no longer exists. The beautiful rubber bands were sourced from Switzerland as I recall!

http://www.houseofillustration.org.uk/

http://www.bobdesign.co.uk/

www.burgess-studio.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 01.08.2012