A New Engraving: Rescued On The Back Of A Goose

Having caught up with older work, this is the first of two posts about recent engravings, although the first was done at the end of last year.

They are both illustrations commissioned for The Dawn Herald by L. B. Mara. This first one shows a dramatic moment when a baby is rescued from a castle tower on the back of a goose. It was great fun to design, especially playing about with the design of the castle. As will all commissions, it started as a rough sketch and developed into a finished drawing:

 I felt that I needed to practice the elements in the border so I did some tiny trial engravings on a small piece of lemonwood:

I was happy with what I had done and so drew the design in reverse onto a large lemonwood block, picked up my gravers and set to work:

It is a special moment after hours (days, actually) of engraving to pull the first proof from the block and see the image just how you had planned it:

Here is the finished engraving:

I am hugely pleased with it. It is now available in an edition of 125 copies, printed from the original engraved block onto a special smooth making of Zerkall paper. Every detail is crystal clear.
It is available from both my Etsy Store and from my Website.