Another, long, Art day!
The frontis painting in any book is often one image that I go backwards and forwards on. It is an image that, if you are reading the book by each page turn, means it sets up the reader. It has to intrigue and tell the reader what the mood is to start the story. The first time that Gary and I discussed the frontis for the tale of ‘The Case of Death and Honey’ by Neil Gaiman we were looking at the ghosts that drove Holmes, then we felt that Mycroft had to be there, it was Holmes’s brother that first gives Sherlock his challenge to solve the ultimate question of Life and Death. It was Mycroft who was sitting behind him as he first ponders the Question.
Gary went through a number of iterations of the painting before we decided upon the image that became the painting, you can see the thought process that Gary and I went through over the months here before he painted the image, I love showing these sketches, it’s not often that they see the light of day and shows his perseverance at finding just the right picture.
