Call to Adventure

Edition #54 Notes

This collaboration has been in the works for well over a year. Frankie Brown is an illustrator and printmaker based in Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK. Frankie is one of my favorite linocut illustrators. Her work does some of the best storytelling not only in her larger complex illustrations but also with simple, smaller scenes. Every piece she creates tugs at the heartstrings and always conjures in me a longing for something I cannot easily describe. Not a longing for anything specific, it's a yearning that only the best kind of art can evoke. And Frankie does that oh so well.

For our collaboration, Frankie created a linocut as part of a personal journey. Balancing creativity and the algorithm beasts is exhausting for most artists, and this special linocut pours all these frustrations into something that gently evokes those same emotions that come from every Frankie Brown piece.

To echo Frankie's printmaking process, I did something new with the covers where the background colors were being digitally printed, and I screen-printed a single dark layer on top. The effect is striking in its contrast, and as screenprinting always does, it creates a nice texture and sensory experience. Inside you'll find delicate purple and blue hues that match the tones and some near-hidden linocut elements from the cover design.

Bookhead Club subscribers will receive another one of Frankie's artworks in the form of a matte soft-touch sticker, titled Safe Under the Stars. You can also purchase a sticker pack of this art →