Illustrated Books

Fiction Book

Home by Carson Ellis

This book is written and illustrated by Carson Ellis and is all about homes that people/creatures live in. Every page depicts a home and who lives there with a simple sentence e.g. A babushka lives here. I think this book has such a simplistic goal/presentation of a concept (just homes) but says so much more through the illustrations. Each home tells a story and shows a character. The babushka's home is old, wooden, outside the city, a bird pokes it head in without fear. You can tell she has no tv or electricity, she lives alone, she grows her own veg and maybe collects her water from the well. This book creates a feeling and stresses that homes are precious and unique and an extension of the person living their, with very little written explanation. Ellis' uses comparison and simple composition to make sure that her message is clear and while reading this book you think of all the homes she shows, and all the homes you know. I love this book, I think it's gorgeous, I'm going to buy it soon. Her classic use of texture and colour and the effect of her analogue methods (using watercolour/ink/whatever it is) expresses the homely vibe even more. These painted illustrations say everything that needs to be said I think. There isn't a plot/story/names characters but this is still a fiction book because they places don't exist, but Ellis presents them as if this book is a collection of places she has seen and recorded. All these homes seem familiar and knows to us, like 'well of course a fairy lives there.'.

Non Fiction Book

Two Weeks In May by Lize Meddings

This zine is a sort of diary that depicts how she felt everyday for two weeks. This book has a fiction feel because of the simple wording and elaborate illustration, to me it feels like it's telling a story from a very specific point of view (which it is tbh! but it's real and more of a diary). I think it's really interesting because the illustrations don't actually illustrate a particular scene or explain what happened that day, but just express the general vibe of that day. This way, many people can look at this book and read it and feel connected to it and say 'yeah so did I'. Tjis zine is very personal as well and I like it because it seems like Meddings' was just expressing herself through this, not trying to create a specific piece or explore a specific story. It's more about making the zine than the finished product. Her small decorative illustrations of animals or faces embellishing upon the feelings of the day rather than distracting from them.

Self Published Book

It Doesn't Have To Be Perfect It Just Has To Exist by Gemma Flack

This zine is all about creating and the creative process. Flack describes this as ‘it doesn’t have to be perfect, i just has to exist’ is a zine about making things, feelings things, and doing things. it’s a reminder to yourself to be a magic and kind person... to other people, and to yourself.'. I think this is LOVELY, this zine is all about an aesthetic/feeling/vibe not something so concrete or a specific event or person. It seems like Flack is just exploring a idea through this zine and expressing this through her characters she works with as well as collaging plants and other different types of working. There isn't a set way of working throughout this zine, it seems to be more about the idea and concept rather than a specific way of making illustrations. There's bits of text that describe certain things you can do or little statements and this book just seems very simple and blunt about what it's saying in a gentle way. 

Picture Book

Mahō by Heikala

 

This picture book is just a collection of all the inktober pieces this artist made in 2016, all were themed around witches. There isn't any text in this book, no concept or explanation or any specific theme apart from witches. There's alien witches, witches in the rain, witches in the sun, witches who don't look like witches, witches who do, ect. This book is purely a way of showing the work she made in a month. But I think the theme of witches is lovely and this makes a very beautiful art book, and also a way of arranging a body of work that has a theme but not a specific brief or purpose apart from 'because I wanted to draw that.'. Her work is GORGEOUS, each piece is stunning and gives such strong sense of a world and character and emotion. Almost every illustration depicts an environment as well as character. I really want this book, even though it's basically just a collection of art prints/a coffee table book.