Behind the scenes of the Vianne’s Confession illustration…
Drawing used to be the part of my design work that clients never saw – the workings-out; the thinking on paper. And though my sketch illustration is now a visible thing, I still explore that way.
Commissioned to illustrate a collaboration between perfumer Sarah McCartney and author Joanne Harris for the prequel to Chocolat, I had a lot to think about.
How might the illustrations work their way around the bottle and the box in a way that feels like the story? How might my archive of plant sketches tell me how a geranium leaf sits, how a tomato leaf waves and curls, how a rose bowls its petals? How does a cat move when it, too, is exploring?
Handily, on the day I was asking myself that last question, two young cats made a brief visit to my garden. Thus, pages of studies on the backs of lists and printouts. My advice: never make friends with the reference – there were waits for them to get bored with my company so that I could draw them…
Read more about the project here
Find out more about the perfume here
And of course, buy or borrow the book.
