Author: darius

Illustration Diary – Parshat Va’eira – Moses, Aaron, Pharaoh and the Serpent

In which Aaron and Moses present before Pharaoh the power of the Almighty – his rod turns into a serpent, which in turn consumes the serpents of the court magicians. I’m struggling with this picture, mostly in terms of composition and colour. Here’s a visual diary of progress during last week – looks like it’ll […]

Moses picture – first layer

This is a quick shot of the Moses picture as it’s been developing. Drawn in pencil onto primed and stretched canvas, in this case measuring 70x50cm, the first layer of colour is being applied. For speed I use a kind of painting-by-numbers technique – covering the whole surface bit by bit, but for this to […]

Exodus/Shemot – Chronicling the artwork process.

Working now on the next part of the Bible, I’m planning on chronicling the process by posting sketches and work-in-progress photos of the paintings. (The final paintings will only be available for viewing once the book is published). So to start off, here’s the first sketch – Moses in the Bullrushes.

BOOK COVER

So after lots of work – it’s about to be published – 50 years since the last such book – a German-language Bible for Jewish children – Part 1 – Genesis. Many, many thanks to publisher Myriam Halberstam of Ariella Verlag, for choosing me to do the illustrations, and to writers/translators/adaptors Bruno Landthaler and Hanna […]

Some perfect lettering by Ben Shahn

A little more on Ben Shahn, who was a master at calligraphy/typography. I have Shahn’s beautiful book called “Love And Joy About Letters”  (1964), which was given to me by Jock and Judith Cohen for my Bar Mitzvah! Here’s an extract from the book, which as a whole gives a glimpse into how the letters […]

Children’s Bible Illustrations

My Noah’s Ark painting is now to be one of a series of twelve illustrations I’ve recently been commissioned to create for a small Jewish publisher in Germany. They’re publishing a children’s Bible there for the first time since 1964, and it’s a wonderful project to be involved in. I’ll be giving more details about […]

Santiago Rusinol

Santiago Rusinol i Prats (1861-1931) was a Catalan artist who painted, most beautifully, sunlit gardens and courtyards in Catalunya and Mallorca. I keep coming back to this quite haunting but intimate image of a slightly neglected pond in a romantic garden at Son Moragues near Valldemossa, Mallorca. The garden of Son Moragues is still there, […]