Fantasy | A Distant Soil by Colleen Doran

Alberto Sangorski is an artist who should be of special interest to all who appreciate great picture-making. Little is known about this artist or his works by illustration enthusiasts, because he specialized in illuminated manuscripts. Very little of his work ever made it into print, and most of his books were hand-crafted wonders for wealthy collectors. Some editions of his work were available in elaborately reproduced volumes with gilt edges. Others were not so carefully manufactured.

Here’s a shot of a page from “La Morte D’Arthur”.

Here is the same page from a print copy.

The Internet Archive has a scan of this book from a finer print edition by the Graphic Engraving Co. for Chatto & Windus, which you can see HERE.

Here is a scan of a 1937 edition of Prayers by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Sangorski (1862-1932) created his work during the Golden Age of Illustration, starting his trade as a secretary to a goldsmith, then, at the age of 43, moving on to work for his brother’s bookbinding company, Sangorski and Sutcliffe. This bindery is still considered one of the finest in the world.

It’s extraordinary that a man in his forties was able to develop such amazing skills as an illustrator and calligrapher. I hope that bit of news is an inspiration for many of you who think you dream too late.

Cartoonists are the direct heirs of the dying art of illuminated manuscripts. I’ve been studying Sangorski for some time now in hopes of getting a Lord of the Rings commission to do a series of poems as illuminated manuscripts. Or, more precisely, to do an illustrated book of them. But with my schedule so full over the coming months, much of it being devoted to finishing off the Neil Gaiman graphic novel I am working on, that’s a dream I’ll have to push back further.

The bindings by Sangorski and Sutcliffe were as elaborate and gorgeous as the interior illustrations, as you can see.

The firm is perhaps best remembered for the book known as “The Great Omar“, a copy of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám incorporating 150 individual jewels in its covers, which sank with the Titanic in 1912 only weeks before Sangorski himself died in a drowning accident.

Here is one of my favorite images from a book by Keats.

And a fantastic two page spread of “The Lady of Shalott”.

The glorious binding of an edition of Kipling.

And some stunning images from an edition of the works of Poe.

Sangorski and Sutcliffe was taken over by Shepherds Bookbinding in 1998. You can read more about them HERE. The company maintains an archive of over 15,000 items from their history.

I’ve always felt closer to an illustrator, or, perhaps, a monkish illuminator than most cartoonists, I am sure, with the current emphasis on simple drawings, and production speed. There’s a great deal to recommend that approach, but I’m looking more and more to the craftsmanship of the past for my work of the future. And studying Mr Sangorski’s work has been a great education for me.

I hope you’ve found something interesting and inspiring in his work as well.

└ Tags: art, Illustration, Image Comics

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The Almost “Magical Barbie” Project Concept Art and Design

by Colleen Doran on May 18th, 2012

Posted In: Blog, Culture, Literature, Children's, Colleen's Work, Culture, Literature, Fantasy

Every once in awhile, I kinda disappear and run off and do things that are not comics. This is one of them. Drawings, designs, and concept work for a magical “Barbie”-like project.

I’m not going to tell you what this project was. While it was released commercially, none of the drawings here were used in the final work, though some of the designs were reworked by other artists, and bits of my other illustrations are in the final product. You’ve probably never heard of this project. I’m not sure how well it is doing in the marketplace. Since it’s aimed at little girls, and I never really had a serious problem with the client, I’m not going to name them here. I’ll just show you my sketches and give you some background info.

It’s no great hardship for me to draw pretty people in pretty costumes, so this gig seemed like a good fit. Originally, I was just hired to do simple character drawings for a flat fee.

Unfortunately, the job developed what we call “Mission Creep”. The original specs of the assignment bloated, but the pay did not increase with the increase in responsibility. Single character drawings became primary and secondary character and costume design, set design, and limited animation. Usually, you get more pay for this sort of thing, but not on this job. On the one hand, I was excited and happy to be doing animation and primary concept work. On the other hand, the pay was pretty bad. Oh well, can’t have everything!

The client was very pleasant, but also very exacting. There were a lot of little changes. Since the work was paid by the piece, not by the hour, this meant almost every change or extension on the job meant more work for less and less hourly pay. While I liked the client and the job, the pay began to creep down to minimum wage. I’d love to have continued the job to the end, but it was financially disastrous.

I should have refused some of the assignments, but I think the pickings were slim back then. I would have advised any other artist to walk away, but I didn’t. I began to resent the gig, even though it was pleasant work.

In the end, the decision to leave the project was taken out of my hands when I got a horrible case of whooping cough, which went into pneumonia. The client had no choice but to find another artist, and I was relieved. I ended up getting much better work shortly thereafter.

At the time, a small team of artists were working on the project also, but for some reason, none of this team is credited on the final work. My small contributions are also uncredited. It appears that all of the artists were replaced and only one artist got credit for the job. I don’t have any personal knowledge of why this happened.