Prince John Book Illustration

The Book Illustration Prince John is part of a large project. The project objective is to convey the atmosphere of the book full of dramatic events: love and hatred, friendship and hostility, dignity and dishonor. According to my plan, the project should consist of 21 illustrations on a full page, including 3 double page spreads. In addition to the illustrations, the text of the book is going to be complemented with initials and small decorative elements in the same style as the illustrations. At the moment, I have done about 20% of the total project volume. There is still a lot of work ahead! I try to follow the classic examples of Hans Holbein, Albrecht Dürer, Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt Harmenszoon Van Rijn, whose artistic value is considered absolute. Work on the current project made me study more deeply the work of these great masters. And I will continue to get acquainted with their pictorial manner. The source of inspiration among modern artists is works of Ukrainian illustrator Vladislav Yerko.

I focused on revealing the image of Prince John and on implementation historical authenticity in details. This illustration belongs to this lines of chapter 7: "The condition of the English nation was at this time sufficiently miserable. King Richard was absent a prisoner, and in the power of the perfidious and cruel Duke of Austria. (...) Prince John, in league with Philip of France, Coeur-de-Lion's mortal enemy, was using every species of influence with the Duke of Austria, to prolong the captivity of his brother Richard. (...) In the meantime, he was strengthening his own faction in the kingdom (...) he proposed to dispute the succession, in case of the King's death, with the legitimate heir, Arthur Duke of Brittany, son of Geoffrey Plantagenet, the elder brother of John.This usurpation, it is well known, he afterwards effected." With reference to the historical sources, the events described in the novel date back to 1194. At that time, Prince John was 27 years old. Later he became John, king of England. His nickname was Lackland. During his reign, the reputation of John Lackland was so bad that since then no one English monarch has ever named his successors with this name. In 1215 rebels made him sign Magna Charta Libertatum. As a hint to this historical document, Prince John holds the parchment in his hand in the illustration. He stands with the haughty face against the wall where the flag of his royal house of the Plantagenets hangs. The wall has two exits. This detail hints the viewer that when people run out of patience and rebel, Prince John and his followers will escape through them. There are soldiers in the foreground, who keep a close eye on a viewer. This psychological accent made the viewer involved in the events. Coin purses are depicted on the top of the illustration, these are for rich. Food wastes are depicted at the bottom of the illustration, these are for poor.

The most important thing for me is to continue and finish the project.

The use of traditional artistic techniques gives the images a sense of material authenticity and a diverse,rich texture that is very difficult to achieve with digital methods. However, at a certain point, this method reaches its limit in terms of further enhancing the image. This is when digital painting becomes essential. It allows for fine-tuning the image and refining small details. Since the illustrations are meant to be part of a printed book, the final digital processing enables them to be as close as possible to the author’s original vision.

The principle of dividing the image into three conceptual spaces with a central narrative in the middle wasborrowed from the Bayeux Tapestry. This work of art is a historical monument that demonstrates the use of multi-layered imagery as a means of multi-story narration. This approach is characteristic of the perioddescribed in the novel Ivanhoe. The illustrations subtly reference the original source of this techniquethrough decorative, intertwined animal figures.

Painting the paper surface with strong black tea creates a convincing effect of time’s influence on thematerial, while not damaging its structure. The color turns out very natural. Achieving the same effectwith regular paint is quite difficult. To obtain the natural texture, I used a special technique. A piece of crumpled fabric, soaked in tea, was forcefully thrown onto the stretched paper surface until randomimprints formed the textured surface of the desired tone. The sense of an antique image isenhanced by intentionally made scratches and partially worn gilding.