New print series “Sleeping Animals”

by John Bloor February 9, 2019

In the Summer of 2018, Alice told me that I ought to design some more “Christmas” prints for all the fairs we do leading up to Christmas. My idea was to do sleeping animals. Not very Christmassy at all! I just couldn’t face doing something really Christmassy. So, during the Summer I sketched these sleeping animals and decided to surround them with elements from their habitat. Almost like they were nesting but not exactly. The bears would be sleeping amongst fir trees, the fox amongst grasses, the hare would be surrounded by wheat and the squirrel would be in an oak tree (of course).

It all turned into an exercise in trying to represent the surroundings as interestingly as possible with just a limited palette of three colours per print. And as such, it was a really enjoyable exercise in coming up with different ways of showing the same thing, teasing out details one way or another, reversing colours or using lines.

I am very pleased with the end results!