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."

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!

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...

BOOKWORMS (BOOKMOTHS)

Bookworm is a popular generalization for any insect which supposedly bores through books – as 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:) 

BANISHED CREATURES - three translated stories

Many people ask me: Are the books of Serbian mythology available in English? I must say – not yet, unfortunately... BUT, we have translated three stories from Banished Creatures book, as the examples that we used to find potential publishers outside our country. We have two interested publishers, for now - one from Germany and another from France. I hope that in a future time we find a publisher from England or America, who would be willing to publish this books of Serbian mythology. Until that happens, you have the opportunity to read three stories in English. 
PDF sample (3,62 MB) can be downloaded HERE!

PROMO samples – three translated stories in English

Illustrations note:

1) Helpful Household Spirit – illustrated by Ivica Stevanovic

2) Talason – illustrated by Vanja Todoric

3) Baba Roga – illustrated by Ivica Stevanovic

Baba Roga / Unfinished drawings / Pen and watered ink

1) Translator’s note: Baba Roga is comprised of two words: baba (meaning old woman or grandmother) and rog (meaning horn). Therefore, the name Baba Roga can be translated as ‘horned old woman/grandmother’.

2) Translator’s note: These names can be translated into English respectively as old woman’s peak, old woman’s head, old woman’s hill, old woman’s tooth, old woman’s field, old woman’s lake, and old woman’s oak.

FRANKENSTEIN – a story about unrequited love

I remember when I first entered in a public library, in Nis (City where I was born, and spent the best days of my childhood), with the intention to rent horror genre books. I was ten years old, and the first book that I rented was a Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Promo Art Valentine's Day for U. S. clients

At home, I lay down in bed and impatiently began to read. And ... WOW! This was completely different than I expected. This was not Frankenstein like stitched monster from the old American movies. Although this was a big surprise for me, I was not disappointed, but on the contrary – I really liked the book. Novel was a different, unexpected, at moments very poetic and emotional.

One of my old illustrations - recently re-designed

At the end, I realized that Frankenstein is a story about unrequited love. Yes, this is a novel from the period of Romanticism, with gothic and science fiction elements. The idea of reviving the corpse with electricity comes from the theory of Galvanism.

So, if you plan to create your own monsters, then be prepared to love them as they are.

Old man and the giants

Here's something that came out from the project where I was involved as an illustrator. But only for a short time. It is a Serbian fairy tales project. The project designed by the same model as the Rebels – Vampires and Witches  and Banished Demons, including several hired illustrators.

Anyone who know well Serbian tales, knows that these are very authentic and fantastic stories. Very inspiring to illustrate. I’m supposed to illustrate the story "How the old man tricked the giants." I began my work, and the first thing that I drew was a sketches of giants characters.

Giants characters from my sketchbook

There are eight giants in the story, so I wanted to give every giant specific character – appearance. I decided to do a big double-page composition of an old man and giants in the cave. I started to draw this complex illustration, using the usual technique – watered ink and pen. 

Old man and giants in the cave / double-page illustration / unfinished

And when I was almost finished, I received a contract from the publisher. The contract did not provide royalties for the future publications. So I refused to participate further, because I think it's fair to include royalties for this type of publications which have universal national character.

Old man and giants in the cave / detail

To other illustrators such agreement is acceptable, so in the end I remained a rebel with or without good reason. At least, I’m richer for an old man and eight giants..;)

 

Chinese Meteorology

About a few weeks, I received a strange copy of the book Meteorology. I was surprised because the book is in Chinese! This book I illustrated a few years ago (actually in 2009.), for the local publisher Creative Center. A Chinese publisher bought the rights for the series Find out and try, that contains mentioned book - Meteorology. 

Meteorology – Serbian and Chinese editions

From now, the Chinese kids will have a chance to enjoy in my illustrations. I wonder how they translated the text in a balloons, because the illustrations full of comic dialogue, and I’m the author of all comic dialogue that appear in the illustrations.

My most rigorous critic – Katarina – she likes Chinese version of the book

Editors from Creative center had a few complaints, so there was censoring some balloon text and image content.

Here are a few fun examples of censorship:

The first censored illustration in the book - Amish and tornado

This is the first illustration in the book. My original idea was that the characters are Amish (it is mentioned explicitly in a footnote of illustration) – Jakob says that as soon as possible he bought a TV to watch the weather, despite the fact that the Amish do not use electronic devices, and other "evil things" of modern technology. Editors did not want to explicitly say that the characters are Amish, but looking at the illustration, it is obvious...

Totally rejected illustration – Charles Fort and falls of frogs

Another fun example of censorship is the illustration with falls of frogs. Author of the book is not like this idea, as well as illustration of Charles Fort, a famous researcher into weird events. This illustration is totally rejected.

Illustrative allusion to the TV soap series Wounded Eagle

The third illustration example is actually an allusion to one domestic (Serbian) idiotic TV soap novel - Wounded Eagle - totally crap that was broadcast on Serbian national television. Author of the book – Nedeljko Todorovic – he recognized my intention, and the characters name from shitty series, was rejected from the dialogue of this illustration… unfortunately…