One of the most important aspects of working on new ideas and designs for the collaborations is the initial sketchbook drawings and planning. I love receiving new poems and prose to work with from my writer friends and the working notes in the sketchbooks are an important part of the process of getting the idea from the first reading to the final drawing.

I will often spend several weeks and numerous compositional possibilities before settling on the final image. The sketches illustrated here are from the latter stages of working on one of the poems from the forthcoming Shorelines book, in collaboration with my dear friend and long-time collaborator Donald S Murray. 

This was one of several poems in the book where I have created two images to illustrate the idea, giving a broader view of the poem and allowing me to add more visual emphasis to the mood of Donald's poem. This works for both poet and artist and adds to understanding of the theme for the reader while also enhancing the aesthetic quality of the finished book.

I'm currently around half way through the fifty drawings for the book, with many more hours to be spent in the sketchbooks developing the images for the poems. It often feels like I spend too much time honing the final designs, but I hope it pays off with the quality of the final publication. 

Watch out soon for the second image for 'Reformation' on the Net Mender, and in the Shorelines page on the website.