Nights at the Circus

 This pen and watercolour depicts the Princess of Abyssinia who is in charge of the Tigers.

A carriage conveying Fevvers rushes through a deep Russian winter. Pen and watercolour.

Nights at the Circus

This is the same image done in two very different ways. The first was created using mainly ink and watercolour while the second is a woodcut. It is a depiction of Walser, a reporter who joins the troupe and from whose point of view the story is largly told. These images were heavily inspired by the Russian art at the turn of the century.  

Nights at the Circus

This is a pencil drawing of Colonel Kearney, leader of the troupe,  with his pet pig Cybil.

Nights at the Circus

In this picture Mignon sits forlornly in a bath tub just glimpsed through the half open door. The image is an etching using a method called aquatint.

In the circus ring, as the audience watches, the searing strains of music stirring the air, Mignon waltzes slowly with a tiger.

 

Fevvers takes to the air inside the Russian theatre, her wings unfurling as she ascends to the Gods.

Nights at the Circus

Fevvers, an Etching

Anyone who has read Angela Carter's novel "Nights at the Circus" will know that it is a veritable treasure chest of vividly evocative images, rich in texture and detail and just ripe for depicting, any illustrators dream.

This image of Fevvers, the story's feisty protagonist, is an etching. I used this design for the front cover (adding the title and authors name later by hand).