Limited Edition Cornish Litany Postcards

This is a continuation from an earlier post The Cornish Litany Commission about some special illustrative postcard art that has been created for Debra Meister (www.debrameister.com and lotsofcards.com:) who has authored a wonderful book A Litany... Cornish and Otherwise gathering a great number of these visions together from both past and present.

The images shown below (slight updates from the original works) will be limited edition postcard versions, which, by the way, should be available within the next couple of weeks as a signed edition of twenty-five.

Of the two commissioned, for the art of the first postcard, it seemed only natural to illustrate the litany in a similar style to that of The Pumpkin Dream Halloween poem, and it was great fun revisiting with some of these creatures. While many of the smaller monsters are found in The Pumpkin Dream, the central monster, the big scary tree house creature, was a welcome addition to their sinister ranks; he's got a big appetite, as you might notice on the back of the card! Yikes!

For the second card, I wanted to return to the tactile world of pen and paper. And instead of working in a surreal style, which I mentioned in the earlier blog entry, I was diverted. While viewing Debra's book again (see below), I really enjoyed ye olde versions of the postcard imagery. In many of these images a person in some type of old building is being spooked by a team of green and purple monsters crawling out of the woodwork so to speak. (The image on the postcard below was done in pen with hues created by colored pencil).

Hope you enjoyed the further peek into this commission project. Hope to post news soon about the limited edition versions. And in the meantime, here again is a full preview of the second 3rd edition (updated 1-16-2012) available on blurb! May your holiday be free from Ghoulies and Ghosties!

12-19-2011: Please Note (updated):
The author mentions that 3rd edition pricing is more affordable. Any previous pricing was for final limited copies only on the 2nd edition.

The Cornish Litany Commission

Here is a litany (prayer, invocation) you have probably heard, though perhaps not by name, that asks for protection against what gramps from The Pumpkin Dream might term as a woeful host of haints and witches. And the litany goes:

From Ghoulies and Ghosties
and Long-leggety Beasties
and All Things that go Bump in the Night,
Good Lord deliver us!

Words like that are perfect fodder for imaginative sorts to conjure up all sorts of hideous beasts lurking in the darkness... And Debra Meister (www.debrameister.com) has collected a good number of these postcard visions in her book  A Litany... Cornish and Otherwise. Here are two such examples of vintage cards Debra shared on the website lotsofcards.com:

The book is also a showcase for newer works by such artists (to name a few) as Chuck E. Bloom, Rick Geary, Matthew Kirscht, Chad Savage, as well the author herself. And the author says the third edition (coming next year) will offer even more artists including Ian Miller.

That's amazing company, and I'm thrilled to have been commissioned to create a postcard (or two) for that next edition! As someone who was scolded in my early years for drawing monsters, it is so much fun, as an adult, to return to a project where monsters are actually the subject of concern.  I have completed one work thus far, in a somewhat similar style to the art of The Pumpkin Dream... and have already set my sights now on completing a second work more in line with my surrealist drawings (seen here in monochrome and color).

In the meantime, Debra Meister is offering a full preview of the second edition available on blurb -- until the 3rd edition (preview here updated 1-16-2012) appears, brimming with even more ghoulies and ghosties...! Good Lord Deliver Us all!