The Bones Of You

I love music and the lyrics of songs are really important to me.

Deciding to illustrate a song has come out of wanting a project. I didn’t want to write the words myself because I have written a couple of children’s books which have not been successful in capturing the hearts and minds of any publishers (I’ve been so very close) and I’ve lost confidence in my writing abilities.

So, I decided to illustrate one of my favourite songs, in a graphic novel format.

Here are some early ideas/experiments using ink & brush – which I loved using and am pleased with the results of (no pre-drawing) but which I decided not to use.

I love Elbow.

To my ears, their music is innovative, inventive and lyrically brilliant.

I could say a lot more about how much I love them and why – but it would involve too many superlatives.

I doubt my art work does them justice but it was a really useful project to set myself and to ensure I completed. And I am actually pleased with the results!

In the ‘reminiscing’ scenes I have tried to use sepia to differentiate them from the present scenes.

It’s also where I started working in this way – monochrome grey tones, Indian ink and spot colour.

Currently I am continuing to develop this technique – there will definitely be another post about this very soon (because the artwork is already completed). And I did All The Houses I’ve Ever Lived In/Little Boxes using the same materials, more or less. I’m pretty excited about working in this way.

In the meantime, here is the finished piece. Hope you, and Elbow & Guy Garvey, approve. Details about their music and links to their website are under the image, at the end of my post.

If you’ve not heard of Elbow (???!!!??) – you can see the song & video on YouTube

New album & tour dates out now – details on their website.