An angelic commission

In 2024, I was asked by the writing group Dark Angels to design the cover of their second anthology of poetry called And So We Grow. A celebration of nature, the book features poetry from a range of voices, including a poem I wrote inspired by the Devil’s-bit scabious flower.

I knew that the cover would need a certain amount of copy and that it would be green and silver. I’m a sucker for metallics on deep colours so I was excited to get going on creating a fitting illustration.

I wanted to create an image that combined the nature-based theme of the work while connecting it back to Dark Angels themselves. The idea for a vine came very quickly. It worked neatly with the portrait nature of a book cover and created an immediate visual connection with the notion of growth – think of vines climbing over rambling old houses. As you can see from my sketches I started out quite literally drawing simple vines with leaves. But as I tried different styles, I realised the shape of a leaf is not dissimilar to the shape of a wing. I couldn’t resist, given how many people have been transformed by a Dark Angels workshop. If you believe in writing words that matter and connecting with other brilliant writers, I encourage you to take a look at the courses they run.

Having come up with the idea, the next task was to turn it into a black and white linocut print. The shape itself is fairly simple, but carving curves into lino isn’t always straightforward. I had to work carefully to ensure I didn’t end up with any jaggedness in my lines. Whatever I’m making, I always print several test runs to check how the cut is going and adjust the carve as needed. Once I was happy with the print it was just a question of sharing a high resolution image with the design team who turned it into this beautiful silver angel wing vine.

If you’d like to buy a copy of the book, head over to Paekakariki Press.