Illustrations for Cody Dock…
I’ve sketched a lot of species and landscapes at heritage and ecology site Cody Dock and along the Lea. Now I’ve illustrated them, for a new wildlife spotting booklet.
It’s a wonderful brief – and full of creative and technical challenge.
The map has been illustrated to work at small scale for the booklet, and large scale for display, within the technical constraints of illustration software.
The species on the map have also been required as individual illustrations for onward uses. Technically, that’s straightforward but because they’re small and for readability, simplified, their usability would be limited. So I’ve created a standalone set.
We’ve roughed out the eels and ladders game to see how it might work in the booklet and printed for tables. The result is an unconventionally long and thin background illustration – eel-shaped, we like to think…
The pieces for the game were eels – until we realised how fiddly they would be to cut out… Now they’re curled up on colourful counters.
High and low tide. Which species? How many? Where are they? What are they doing? There’s been to and fro as we work that out.
Design of the booklet is in-house. Because I have several strands of creative practice, part of my brief has been to provide input and insight for format and layout.
I hope that the results will help visitors to Cody Dock to notice, enjoy and value the wonderful array of wildlife in this special part of East London.
