Hello and happy first day of Summer! I hope everyone has been keeping well?
I don’t know about you, but I feel so much more positive and upbeat as we edge into summer. I’m trying to spend as much time outside as I possibly can, rejoicing in the fact I don’t have to wear a puffer coat and boots for the next few months.
Personal projects have had to come to a pause for the past few weeks as I’ve been working flat out on lots of quick turn-around commissions. I recharged over the long bank holiday weekend and I now feel mentally ready to get my teeth stuck into a large project.
Talking about big projects - I’m very excited to announce the release of my new 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle with Laurence King - The World of Virginia Woolf.
It was a dream project and I thought I’d share some of the process behind making this mammoth puzzle.
I’ve always been interested in the Bloomsbury group but never read any Virginia Woolf so I took this project as a good excuse to immerse myself in her world. On a friend’s recommendation I got the audio book of Square Haunting by Francesca Wade which detailed the lives of 5 radical and intellectual women (including Virginia Woolf) who all lived in Mecklenburgh Square during the early 20th century. This really helped in setting the scene. I then read and absolutely loved Mrs Dalloway. I struggled a little with Orlando but I plan on giving it another go.
When the commission came in I confidently thought I knew exactly what to do as I’d just completed The World of The Brontes jigsaw design a few months earlier.
How I was mistaken!
This time I had a lot more to contend with. The City of London (with it’s many parks and squares), Cornwall, East Sussex, Oxford and a bit of Cambridge - all placed roughly in the right geographical location. And let’s not forget all of the building cutaways!
It was a daunting task and I spent a good chunk of time figuring out where everything needed to go. London was going to test me the most - with parks and buildings needing to be a little more accurate in terms of placement … so I downloaded a google maps document of the area and pinpointed all the places listed in the brief.
I then roughly blocked in the locations. The Thames was a handy way to create some division between London and East Sussex/Cornwall.
I’m not the most confident at drawing in perspective - I usually like to take liberties in that area heh heh. For the Bronte puzzle I dealt with each location like a separate ‘vignette’ but in this case it wouldn’t work as I had a whole city to map out.
So thank goodness for Procreate’s perspective guide - which saved my bacon! With a LOT of trial and error I managed to place and angle the buildings to reveal cut-aways and important scenes.
I then drew a more detailed rough. It was crucial at this stage to get everything as accurate as possible. Once I started on the final there was no going back! Or if there was it would be a massive headache.
And here it is finished:
It took quite a few weeks of work. I drew everything on my iPad - working in small chunks and uploading to a photoshop mainframe file on my computer. It was a frustratingly slow and arduous process but I got there in the end.
Like the Bronte jigsaw, there is a lovely mix of characters and scenes from real life and Virginia’s novels - all beautifully written about on the back of the jigsaw poster by Sophie Oliver, a lecturer in modernism at the University of Liverpool.
I got a lot of enjoyment drawing this iconic skating scene from Orlando:
I also loved this little moment - Vanessa Bell cutting Lytton Strachey’s hair in the garden:
Here is Godrevey Lighthouse. I visited Cornwall last summer and saw it glinting in the distance just across from Carbis Bay.
There are so many other little details and nuggets I could talk about but this is already becoming a bit of a bumper post and I’ve pretty much exceeded the email length so I’d better wrap things up.
The world of Virginia Woolf is launching on the 8th of June and Laurence King are kindly offering a 20% Discount Code for all of you: WOOLFE20
Till next time - thanks for reading and I hope you all have a good June!
Ellie
Fabulous!