I Like Big Books – A Literacy Rap

The Wolves Of Willoughby Chase

I am SUCH A HUGE FAN of this series. I've spent many a hour in the past few months idly doodling ideas to work up into a covers I'd like to see on the books, but this is actually based on an etching I did last year.

The etching is of a fox, in fact, but I had a play around in Photoshop to make him look more wolfy. I turned the russet palette to a slate grey to the same end.

The hot-air balloon element is taken from an 18th-century handkerchief held at the V&A which has always reminded me of the series.

I'm in two minds about the Bauhaus typeface: it's nice to give the book a sense of modernity and edginess but the faux-gothic atmosphere is one of the great joys of this and other books from the series.