The Toucan Feather Illustrations
I am not a trained artist but taught myself to draw because I felt it would add an interesting dimension to my novel. In most illustrated novels the pictures depict scenes and there is the danger that they can give away too much of the story. I have depicted very few scenes – indeed many of my illustrations are ideograms or are trompe l’oeil. A recurring theme through the illustrations is that of wellbeing, though I have taken trouble to disguise the message. I reveal the meaning of four illustrations here, so that you can understand how my mind works and to help you decipher some of the other pictures’ meanings.
I have used a variety of pencils (from 2h-4b), a 0.4 pilot black ink pen, black caran d’ache pencil, white gel pen and occasionally black or white pastel. The originals are A4 sized or smaller. For inspiration I used a visualization technique, the internet, reference books and even an advert in a UK newspaper from a brewery company for some of my subject matter, occasionally reproducing what I found as accurately as I could.
The illustrations are available as fine art limited edition prints. They are copyright © Nicholas Stafford-Deitsch 2003. The tocamu symbols which appear here aren’t reproduced in the book or on the prints.
Click thumbnails to enlarge images. To see super-sized images, view them in the shop.
