Martha Chiplis
Martha Chiplis
Design and Illustrations for
Tucker Tiger and the Plan by Ann Dunlevy
2014
Description
Story
Tucker Tiger and his tiger friend Scrufless were happy that tigers had been voted the most popular animals at the zoo. But they were sad that zoo visitors now came to see only the tigers and ignored their other animal friends. What could they do to encourage people to appreciate ALL the zoo animals? Read “Tucker Tiger and the Plan” to learn what the animals decide to do and how zoo visitors react.
Author
Ann Dunlevy rediscovered the joy of writing after retiring from a series of jobs in education. She renewed her creative self when her grandsons were born. “Tucker Tiger and the Plan” is her first children’s book.
Illustrator & Designer
Martha Chiplis is a letterpress printer and a designer, and is married to Ann Dunlevy’s son, John. She is coauthor with Cathie Ruggie Saunders of “For the Love of Letterpress: a Printing Handbook for Instructors & Students.” (Bloomsbury 2013)
Materials & Process
7 in. x 7 in., 42 pp., 19 illustrations. Printed by Blurb Inc., the self-publishing platform. The edition is unlimited. The paper is Mohawk Superfine, the printing process is Indigo digital, the binding is perfect, softcover.
Original Illustrations Materials & Process
14 in. x 7 in., pencil, ink, gouache
The illustrations for Tucker Tiger and the Plan are mostly based on photographs. I made the initial sketches, assembled the photos, and drew onto tracing paper with pencil and ink. I then scanned the line drawings and composed them in Photoshop, and printed them out onto paper. Then I painted with gouache on transparent drawing film, placed over the line drawings. After the painted overlay was scanned, the layers were re-ordered in Photoshop, so that the line drawings were on top. The illustration process was like this because I was thinking about letterpress printing this book, and possibly hand coloring it. Although the book was ultimately printed digitally, I may still print letterpress broadsides using the illustrations and text from the story.
Blurb book 30 - Illustrations NFS