NOTES FROM THE WILDERNESS - Thomas Pynchon, and lettering in circle onlays

Since 2014 and before I have designed several covers for Thomas Pynchon titles  - always a fun prospect as a lot of his work is zany and yet rooted in a contemporary landscape, which means they can be quite fun.

 

Lots of Photo-transfer , lots of Pop images , lots of colour , lots of airbrushing - sometimes acryllic direct onto the skin.

                                                                    


Having done a lot of Photo-transfer on goatskin, I have yet to find a suitable and flexible enough technique that does not involve making photopolymer plates, printing presses, or xylene.

Using acryllic stiffens the skin, the image can crack, and it of course makes hand-lettering a problem.....

                                   

So, until i manage to sort that problem out - a short-term design solution has worked quite well - lettering in circle onlays 

 

More next week, including a look at some tradtional work completed in the last 2 years, aswell as some design binding. 

NOTES FROM THE WILDERNESS

Bless me father for I have sinned - its been over 2 years since my last confession and,  I must admit , I'm decidedly rusty and have no idea where to start.



A lot has happened since leaving New York, most of which I'll cover over the course of these notes from the wilderness.

I'm out of practise with writing so I'll be terse.


I completed this set of first edition Bond's in the summer of 2014 at the time of the move to California.

 Finished them all in the new place with the customary Airbrushing, surface gilding, back-pared onlays, tooling, and Photo-transfer

In the coming weeks I'll be writing about some Pynchon Design work, the use of hand letters in circle onlays on spines, a bit of design binding and whatever else comes my way.

PDB has also joined Instagram - you can find that on the right > and I am currently engaged in building my 5th and last Bindery in Pound Ridge, New York.














But I suppose the big news is - Im back...so watch out!