alchemy goodness

This is one of 3 installments to show some extracts from books I illustrated for Cambridge University Press last year.

The first was about the discover of phosphorus through alchemy- "Take one cup of urine; let it lie in a tub until it breeds worms..." reads the back cover :)

I must thank my editor, she gave me the perfect theme to explore with techniques I'd been thinking of. This gave me the perfect opportunity to experiment and get a lot of 'brain clutter' out of my head tomake space for new ideas!

I adopted a 'photoshop' attitude with these, drawing straight away in layers that I could then scan individualy and comp together with relative ease. The medium is a mixture of inkwash, pen&ink, photography and whatever odds and ends I had at the time...