Dear supporters
I want to share some photos of the illustrations I am creating for my book Ladders to Heaven. These are not finished pictures but they will give you an idea of what the final versions will look like. I will share more images as I complete them.
There will be 20 illustrations in the book. Some I have redrawn from images that people created long ago, such as this one of Adam and Eve beneath a fig tree, which was created in Spain in the year 994 (see below, left).
An even older image is that found on a stone seal in the Indus Valley in what is now Pakistan. The image was created about 4,000 years ago. It shows a human figure, possibly a deity, inside another kind of fig tree. In front of the tree is a kneeling man and alongside him is a human head on a stool (see below).
The illustrations will include pictures of famous fig trees, such as the one Queen Elizabeth II was sleeping in when she ascended to the throne, and wildlife such as this rhinoceros hornbill, one of the most important fig-eating animals.
Each of the images involves lots of dots. In the set of photos below you can see how I move from a pencil sketch to ink. The finished illustration will show the view you can get if you stand inside a strangler fig that has killed its host tree and look up.
Best wishes and thanks again for your support.
The book is now 74% funded and I'm making good progress with the words and pictures. I can't wait to share the finished product.
Mike