Monday, December 31, 2012

THE FACE OF ANGER

I hope you're not too anger - I disappeared for a while, but here I am again at these pages! Here's one fine occasion for the new post. Finally, write a few words about the new book that I illustrated. New novel is Malterego written by Marko Šelić Marcello, the writer and famous Serbian hip-hop artist, (and after this collaboration) my good friend and collaborator in future projects.

Malterego / front cover / publisher: Beoštampa

Few sentences that announce novel:
Pieces of face in the maelstrom of the glowing smoke. The Eye with two pupils. It appears from out of nowhere, and carries the darkness with them Does your anger look like this?
Malterego / interior illustration / digital collage
This is the first book for now - Rubik's chair. There will be two more. It's worth to wait.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

WHEN THE ROOSTER CALLS DEAD...

Vagabond hatched
From the white stone;
Strange songs he sang.
Dead he was calling.

Rooster calling the dead / Mixed media illustration






“When the rooster sings at the right time he wakes a sleeping ones, half dead. When he sings in the wrong time, at night – he calling dead. Then people call him guilty.”

Rooster calls dead II / Mixed media illustration
“Rooster (the Guilty one) who sings at night somehow is always black. Night crept into it while he was a fetus in white stone – egg.”

Rooster with tied beak / Mixed media illustration
“When people kill the guilty one - they kill all the roosters, but he is always first - they tied his beak with red thread, to be silent, to accept his own death without a voice, and than dark force would not know that her accomplice is executed.”

Dragon-rooster / Mixed media illustration
“In some places it is believed that a rooster can be transformed into a dragon. Rooster gets dragon’s wings and then he fights against storms and hail clouds.”

More about the roosters, and other animals as well, plants and landscapes which have special meaning in Serbian mythology, you can read (if you know Serbian) in a new book, written by Milenko Bodirogić and illustrated by several mighty illustrators (my colleagues and friends) About plants, animals and landscapes (O biljkama, životinjama i predelima).

The last book in the series Serbian mythology
A small book preview in the PDF format (5.68 MB) can be downloaded HERE.

Although the book is dedicated to the dead, it still speaks to the living – to Youthe survivors who will not asleep their future children with a soft and delightful fairy tales.

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Am I evil? - Asked Dr Jekyll. Yes, I am! - Answered Mr Hyde

One of the most famous stories about the personality divided on good and evil, is a The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hydenovella that became the universal symbol of a well-known split personality concept. There are many films based on Jekyll and Hyde book. A lot of the authors gave a visual version of this story. So here's mine. I got an offer from domestic publisher Makondo to illustrate Serbian edition of the cult novel.

Mr Hyde / Sketchbook drawing / 2012

I was not sure which the technique I will use in making illustrations. Each project, and the character of the project pushed me in some direction. In this case, a digital photo collage proved to be the most ideal technique to illustrate. 

Mr Hyde / Digital photo collage / 2012
This technique gives a very interesting and specific atmosphere in illustration – an atmosphere that you can not get if you use any of the standard drawing techniques.

Mr Hyde / Mixed media drawing / 2001
More than ten years ago I did a series of drawings Mister Hyde, not knowing that I'll be able to really illustrate Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in the future. Well, the future is now.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

IN THE LAND OF LOST SOULS AND WOLVES

There's something more that could be said about Serbian mythology - a world where this mythology was created and where is almost completely forgotten. Our idea was to revive the Serbian mythology through the original authorial texts and illustrations. The fourth book is preparing. The illustrations are in the working process.

Wolfs face in front of the Black Forest / working process

"The wolf is a guide of souls… At the entrance to the Black Forest wolf is waiting for the souls. No one can enter into the forest, without eyes closed forever."

Vučari (Wolf man) / Watercolor illustrations in the working process phase
"Vučari are comedians similar to clowns dressed in sheep's wool. They mock the wolf wearing his ripped skin filled with straw through the village."

Tree-grave / working process

"Cemeteries are quiet places. Quietest ... People are planting trees and fruit trees at cemeteries, so that the dead could be in the shadows. Then the shadows of the dead can be fed with shadows of trees."

Dead soldier's souls and roadside grave / working process

"For those who die in a foreign land, passengers, rioters, for those who die in wars and souls without bodies – to them the monuments have been raised near roads – empty roadside graves."

Monday, July 30, 2012

KINGS, QUEENS, PRINCESSES AND MEASUREMENT

I know, it's been a long time since my last post, but I was pretty busy. Here's a nice occasion for a new post. A few weeks ago I received copies of picture books which I did last year – The Royal Treasure Measure!

The Royal Treasure Measure / Trudy Harris / Millbrook Press / covers
Perfectly printed hardcover book with a jacket, and full color on 32 pages. This is a great story about finding a unique measure, written by Trudy Harris... And the publisher is Millbrook Press (a division of Lerner Publishing Group). 

The Royal Treasure Measure / Trudy Harris / Millbrook Press / inside

Book description – "King Balbazar's kingdom has made a mess of measuring. Curtains are too long, robes are too short, and no one knows how to solve the problem…"
 
The Royal Treasure Measure / Trudy Harris / Millbrook Press / Royal family
"…People measure length with everything from candlesticks to sausages to spoons. Finally, King Balbazar holds a contest. Who will come up with the winning unit of measurementand what will it be?"

The Royal Treasure Measure / Trudy Harris / Millbrook Press / King and Queen
The book is not yet available, but you can order it through Amazon and Bookdepository. When you have such an inspiring story and a great editor Carol, then you have no other option but to do illustrations, the best you can.

Character's sketches # 1
I drew a lot of kings and queens so far, and as always I tried every time to do different characters from the previous. It is not easy to be constantly original, and launch a fresh and unique characters.

Character's sketches # 2
So I spent some time to sketching the characters and heroes of this wonderful story. There was a lot of different characters - tailors, seamstresses, roofers, builders, knights, noblemen ...

Character's sketches #3
As stated in the imprint, this book I dedicated "to my lovely girls – Katarina and Milica – true measure of my life..." 

Katarina - my most rigorous critic - she looks too serious
That's all for now folks!

Saturday, May 12, 2012

ART REMAINS

After nearly ten years of working with publishers, I have accumulated a lot of illustrations that have not been published for various reasons… These illustrations, which remain as the excess from various projects, I like to call them art remains, or art waste. I recently had occasion to illustrate the front page of Matt Heig’s book Shadow Forest .

Black & white version of the front cover for Matt Heig's book Shadow Forest
It is a fantasy novel for teenagers. From the beginning, I was skeptical about this deal because the publisher is not enjoyed my trust ... So I did just black and white version of the cover, and waited.  

Two-headed giant from Shadow Forest book
I never got a response from the publisher to finish this illustration in color, so now I have some interesting drawings that will be included in a special printed edition of my art remains. This collection of black and white and toned unused illustrations will be called Black, White and Gray. In this collection you will find most of the illustrations which I did for the book Goblins in the Castle from Bruce Coville, and many others unused drawings. 

Drawings for the book Goblins in the Castle from Bruce Coville

Black, White and Gray will contain a bunch of drawings from my sketch book.  

Knight & Dragon / sketchbook drawing
It will be in two languages ​​- English and Serbian - and most importantly, will be available to anyone who wants to order this weird collection of wasted art. It is planned to appear in the year 2014, in hardcover, B5 size, on160 pages, for a decent price...

Sunday, April 15, 2012

BOOKWORMS (BOOKMOTHS)

Bookworm is a popular generalization for any insect which supposedly bores through booksas written in Wikipedia.
My good friends Penevski and Pavlic made ​​a short comics about these funny little creatures – bookworms. In our language bookworms are actually (book) moths. The one who reads many books that he practically eating them, he is a bookmoth. A series of short cartoons about bookmoths Pene and Pavlic work for a some time, so that have accumulated enough episodes for one fine printed publication. 

Sketch - unfinished drawing / Bookmoths characters

My friends asked me to draw a few episodes as a guest author in their future collection of short comics Bookmoths - about books and people. Because I have a soft heart, I could not refuse ... I did four stories, so I present two episodes for now (one comic board - one story)…
This episode (Michelangelo's barcode) is about how a book can change your life, whether you read or eat a book.

Bookmoths #2 / Michelangelo's barcode episode

As a kid I read lots of stories and comics about partisan couriers, holders of secret messages written down on paper. In the case that couriers fall into enemy hands (the German soldiers), they have swallowed a secret paper message. So I made the funny situation with a Partisans moths-couriers and Germans moths-soldiers.

Bookmoths #3 / Paper trembling as book burning episode

Keep your books from bookmoths, if you care about them. And if you worry about silly little moths, then you constantly enrich your library. A good book is good food, whether it is for soul or stomach:)