Judging a book...

With the launch of Believing in Butterfly, I wanted to talk to you about the cover. I draw and paint (at the moment, developing a children’s picture book) but I just couldn’t get the image I wanted. Enter illustrious daughter! She came up with a design I loved but I needed to show some disintegration in that perfect butterfly to indicate the suffering of the characters in the book. As luck would have it, we were visiting local artist, Karen Beauchamp.

Karen is a highly successful designer of amazing wallpapers. She has also worked in set design for the BBC and went on to rescue and run the wallpaper company, Cole and Sons. When she saw my daughter’s beautiful design for the cover, she kindly offered to develop it with her, using an oil-based printing technique called collagraphy. This process has translated the original design perfectly to depict the fragility, disintegration, strength and rebirth experienced by the characters in the story.

The colours were carefully chosen. On the side of the disintegration, a gaudy display of cosmetic hues - lipstick red, ruby rouge and peachy flesh – and, on the other side, the colours of the Suffragette movement – purple, green and cream – to indicate feminine strength and tenacity

A survivor of abuse herself, Karen was keen to offer her help with a book that dealt with that subject. Watching them go through the varied processes involved was fascinating.

Firstly, the design is traced and the outline then cut into card. Different materials are added to create the patterns and textures required – anything from screwed up tissue to porridge oats. A wood glue is laid on, cementing the pattern in place and then varnished to seal the surface. Carefully mixed hues are brushed on and pushed into every corner. Four stages of rubbing back then takes place to remove the excess and refine the new colours. Finally, the print is put through the etching press and the image emerges.

We debated on whether the image should have a body or just be wings but it was Karen’s idea to use the figure of a woman with arms up-stretched in triumph. The fact that it looks, at first glance, like an insect body with antennae was just right.

I love the cover. I just hope the story delivers to the same standard.