Wednesday 4 December 2019

Christmas Is Coming! And So Is Another New Book By Robin Stone!

 Hi again folks! Well as you can see from the image above a new book by my old mate, Robin Stone is now VERY nearly ready for publication. As before, the work revolves around many of the usual themes which have become associated with the name, Robin Stone, and for which he is famed. 

My input on this one has been limited to proofreading, editing, formatting to suite the various platforms and media on and through which it is planned to release it - namely print and PDF on LULU and epub via Amazon - and of course cover design (and a bit of refinement work on the mask featured above).

Talking of the cover design: As many of you will doubtless recognise, several different and disparate sources have been plundered in creating the imagery, ranging from elements such as pen and ink line drawing, computer generated imagery (the diaper / nappy pail and cage bed, originally created for Robin Stone by our good friend Angela Fox) and photography (the gaberdine mackintosh supplied by Robin Stone himself and the rest extracted from various Internet sources). I have to say I've had a great deal of fun playing with the artwork.  

But don't think I've totally neglected my own projects. There is always inspiration to be had when working on someone else's projects, even if the subject matter and style doesn't directly and immediately gel with my own work and I've been able to incorporate certain elements and ideas into one of my own projects. Talking of which: I have a graphics based project growing on my hard drive right now which I have been working on for several years in various forms on and off and which I am presently hoping to get out by Christmas... Hmmm....NICE!

So - the imagery below should give you some insight into the a few of the various stages the cover design has passed through during its evolution, and this leads to a couple of questions: 

Some of these intermediates feature the empty caged bed, side bars in the down position. The questions I'd like to pose therefore are these: 

Should the bed be depicted with the barred side in the raised position and the barred top locked in place,  or should it be shown in the lowered position?  Should the bed be depicted occupied or unoccupied? 

Oh - and one extra additional question as just occurred to me: The pail - Diapers or nappies; which one should it say? Or, indeed, should it be a plain white enamel pail, or even left out alltogether? 








6 comments:

bruno said...

Hi
This book has nothing to do with your book based on domestic environment that I am waiting so much ?

Toyntanen said...

It is what it is I'm afraid, Bruno. It is very much someone else's work and I'm merely acting as editor, proof reader and publisher and the only input I have had beyond that is in the design and creation of the cover,which largely involved putting together various elements from several sources.

The Robin Stone book series I have been featuring here is not one of those cases where an author is writing under the guise of another pen name in a different style; Robin Stone's themes, aproach and writing style are very defferent from my own. However his 'Mayfair'book represents a slightly different situation in that I did contribute a small amount of actual writing to that one, creating the introduction, rewording and rewriting certain paragraphs here and there and contributing a couple of additional short sections (and of course contributing quite a large input into the visual imagary)- and I'd wager most anyone familiar with my own work would be able easily to recognize the points at which those contributions were made.

bruno said...

Thanks for your reply.
So what about your own text on domestic environment strict "education" ?

babycheryluk said...

Started reading this book how soon before your new book is released??

Anonymous said...

I'm working on it from time to time but want to get out my illustrated thing first. Trouble is I've been so tied up this year with legal stuff to do with probate and resulting cash flow problems - Toyntanen (from my phone, which I can't get to log in as 'me' properly).

Anonymous said...

Hopefully a couple of weeks in to the new year if all goes well - Toyntanen