The Art of Collaboration: Part 1

In this Artificial Intelligence flooded world it is increasingly important to celebrate our real artists, and pay tribute to the talented creatives that have helped us bring Discworld to life. Real art, by real illustrators, designers, copy editors, jewellers, resin casters, printers, mold makers, photographers, animators, typesetters and, as on one memorable occasion, cabbage-scent-extractors . . .

We are artisans at our heart – hence Terry’s nickname for Bernard being ‘The Cunning Artificer” – and creating things with our brains and hands (not in an Igor sort of way) is our lifeblood and passion . . . it’s how we got the job of creating Discworld merchandise in the first place! From our beginnings as Clarecraft where the modelling skills of our founders Bernard and Isobel Pearson introduced the first Discworld figurines, brought to life by a long lineup of talented painters and sculptors, to the Discworld Emporium of today where we work in most art mediums with a vast array of merchandise and publications under our belt . . . we’ve amassed thirty years of experience in creating real art with craftspeople from all over the world.

Whether its been our inimitable ‘Cunning Artificer’ Bernard, or his once apprentice Ian Mitchell who took on the mantle of chief designer a decade ago, we relish the chance to create our artwork in-house when we can and our style suits the brief. However, when a project calls for a different hand, with a particular style or set of skills we will seek out the right guest artist or specialist maker to do the hard work for us!

Wherever possible, we try our best to select those artists whose work was either approved by Terry during his lifetime, whose work really reflects the tone and ethos of Discworld and/or those for whom Discworld has been as formative as it has for us. Most artists who make their mark on Discworld with us have at least read the books, which makes depicting Terry’s wonderful world a lot easier and much more fun! You can be sure then that our artists are not knocking things out without a care for their subject, on the contrary, their hearts are fully invested!

Of course, art is subjective, and if there’s anything we know better than most, it’s that we can’t possibly reach inside every reader’s imagination to present that which was created in their own mind’s eyes whilst reading the books. By now we hope that we’ve got a good idea of what will tickle the fandom’s fancy, but the least we can do it strive to produce items of which Terry would have approved. By building a web of likeminded artists with a love for the books, we get to explore Discworld further, discover new ways of presenting Terry’s creations and push the boundaries of what we are able to offer, as well as cater to different tastes and produce a little bit of something for everyone!

We’ve been honoured to work with some exceptional people on our Discworld journey, so in this blog series we’ll be introducing some of our most frequent collaborators, who each will reveal a little about their craft and creations in the name of Discworld in their own words – starting with Rich Kingston, and Discworld T-shirt and Stamp artist Boris Sokolovsky of Theoretical Part . . .

“I’m one of those all round annoying arty types. Mainly digital now, but still getting dirty with pencils and sculpting with wax or similar mediums when needed. It ain’t much, but it’s a job.

I first came across Discworld at the tender of 15 in 1984 with the Colour of Magic. Quite an introduction for us all. Further novels followed, in and out of time, and I eagerly looked forward to what Terry would produce next.

My introduction to the Discworld Emporium occurred on the day the shop first opened in 2000. A Pratchett themed shop? In the town where I (used to) live? So I popped in where I met Bernard and Terry – hats on – who were leaning against the counter having a chat. My kind of place. We all got chatting and my fantasy mind was blown.

Little did I know that in the following years friendships would be formed and I’d be sculpting and illustrating characters and places from the books. Funny how paths cross and things develop.

My most challenging piece of sculpture was the 21st anniversary version of the Great A’Tuin, and I’m just thankful they didn’t want it full scale, but I think my favourite piece is Death with Kitten. HE was tricky to get right with wax, but, HE works so well. Although, Death of Rats would make a great replacement for the Silver Lady on a matt black Rolls Royce hearse.

My biggest artistic accomplishment and favourite collection of scribbles, is the Discworld Collectors Edition 2026 Calendar. Me? A Discworld Calendar? A dream come true! I only wish Terry had seen the finished bulk of work, but at least I have my illustration of Pin & Tulip with his signature of approval somewhere.

www.youngrascal.co.uk @youngrascaldesign

 

BORIS SOKOLOVSKY – ILLUSTRATION

Hi, I’m Boris also known as Theoretical part, an Illustrator for last 13 years and beginning board game designer. Leftie, Virgo, bit of a geek, graduated technical university, but chose a strange life path as a freelance artist! My daily work involves creating merch designs, album and book covers, logotypes and so on  . . .  everything I may imagine and draw somehow!

I work mostly with ink and paper and of course finally I finish and prepare everything on PC.

I’m driven by the fact that I have loved fantasy fiction and tabletop games since my teenage years, and that’s why the main themes I work with are obviously interconnected with this passion: medieval, fantasy and mythological stuff, along with the occult and horror.

Discworld is one of my favourite fictional universes, I have many physical books by Sir Terry in my library right now and they were bought more then 10 years ago, so I’ve been here among other Discworld fans for a while already.

In general, I enjoy fantasy books when all or most of action take place in big cities and suburbs and some detective elements are good almost always, that’s why I just fond of City Watch series, and I love Ankh-Morpork more than other places on the Great A’Tuin (sorry, Lancre, sorry, granny). Sam Vimes, Nobby Nobbs and Moist von Lipwig are definitely my favourite characters (yeah, the guardian and shady persons!) and I admire  Terry’s skill of creating “grim-light” books, when everything SHOULD be dark and grim, but it’s just so cozy and optimistic in some sense.

What I want to say is, just imagine, how magical is the feeling when you‘ve got a chance to become truly involved in fictional universe you enjoyed since your youth! So when I received the first email from Ian asking me if wouldn’t mind drawing some artwork for stamps dedicated to the Unseen University, I was more than happy!

www.theoreticalpart.com @Theoreticalpart

JOIN US NEXT TIME FOR PART 2 . . . DAVID WYATT!