Alea iacta est, as the old Romans said.
First of all, after my last posting about a book cover, I would like to thank you very much for your attention and especially for the lively feedback on the book projects. It helped me a lot!
book cover #1: Theodor Storm poems
Well, it turned out a little differently than originally thought. Because, since the book is published in two languages and is aimed at a Chinese audience, I feel that the poet’s name, Theodor Storm, should be written in Chinese in large letters.
In any case, it’s nice that it’s now going to be a co-production (bacopa and sonatabook). And as long as publishers are happy, so am I. I’m not an expert in book publishing and I certainly don’t understand how the Chinese book market works.
This is not entirely true, because when I was a student I published a literary magazine with 4 friends – and 3 books. Actually, we were quite successful. Of course, success is a broad term. For us, it was already a success if we could pay the printer’s bill and start a few rounds of beer with the net profit. But success in that some of the authors who published for us for the first time had become major authors years later.
And also successful in that we caused quite a stir a few times and once even had a provincial governor threatening to sue, whose tender feelings we had hurt.
Anyway, I’ve started selecting the illustrations for the Storm book. 31 poems, and 31 illustrations, all in color. Combining Storm’s delicate poetry with my mostly expressive work is an appealing task and so far everything is looking promising.
book cover #2 Wolfgang Kubin Odes and Elegies
Mr. Bacopa has since included the book in his new releases, and now I’ve gained a humble spot there, too. And that brings us to cover #2.
I’ve already written about Prof. Wolfgang Kubin and now I’m supposed to design covers for his new books. I will also provide the illustrations for this book. It is a somewhat difficult task as the book has odes to Swatow in the first part and Viennese elegies in the second part.
Kubin has very strong lyrics but words like “Zähren” (tears) odes, Swatow, elegies – all are “mega retro”, as a younger generation would describe it. Therefore, I deliberately designed a cover that (hopefully) catches the eye and attracts attention. The reaction of those involved was not exactly euphoric at first, but now everyone seems to be more than satisfied.
It is also relatively difficult to provide the appropriate illustrations since they will only be in black and white and my pictures from the last few years live strongly from the colors. And I don’t want to use earlier works. Above all, the book consists of 2 very different topics. Odes about Swatow (today Shantou 汕头市), a city that hardly anyone knows who has not dealt with China or the Japanese atrocities. And then Viennese elegies, written by a German author, and bridges of ideas that probably not every reader is able to walk.
But I’m not pressed for time with this book while the other one is supposed to be on the Christmas table.
and the dragon
A project that isn’t exactly the focus of my attention is my dragon series. In this case, I wanted to go from the simple form (1-2 strokes) in the first step over time to the complex in the second step and then drop out again and create another level of simplicity in the third step. Now I’m roughly in the middle. I deliberately don’t want to rush it, so that I can incorporate other, more recent thoughts.
Of course, it’s all about abstraction. There is not much left of a dragon in this picture. Maybe a slender, elongated body and claws- with some phantasy. But the feeling of a dragon that winds powerfully through the air seems to be successful.
New Surrealism Concepts. related: just two characters | How an idea takes root and persists
Leave a Reply