 | We sat down with lino-cut artist Alexis Snell to chat about a recent project, an edited version of 'Normal Women' by Philippa Gregory for younger readers. Congratulations on your illustrations for Normal Women, by Philippa Gregory. It was a lot of work, how long did the illustrating process take from start to finish? From a hot bit of spring till the cold gloomy end of Autumn. I don’t remember dates, but I do remember what was going on the garden.  |
| The book tells the stories of normal women doing extraordinary things throughout history. Did you have a favourite story or character to illustrate? Ooh so many! Agnes Hotot was a real badass, in the 1300s she jousted her father’s enemy to death, she had quite the outfit too…! I also really liked Fat Beth who was the first recorded criminal to use chloroform to knock out men and rob them. Honestly there are some many, Ada Lovelace invented an algorithm before computers were invented, and there are scientists, astronomers, weavers, acrobats, you name it and there was probably an amazing woman in that field being largely ignored in the history books until now. |  Queen Victoria and Prince Albert Wedding Day |
 | How did you choose what to illustrate and what kind of research did you have to do on each person (if any)? I was sent a pretty extensive list compiled by Phillippa Gregory and the amazing (all women!) team I worked with from Harper Collins. Of course I read the book and had many reference images to work from - such the famous painting of Dido Belle by David Martin (left). |
Lino-cut illustration of Dido Belle
You work traditionally in lino-cut so your sketches can differ a lot from your final printed art, can you talk us through your process and how you responded initially to the artwork brief?
You work traditionally in lino-cut so your sketches can differ a lot from your final printed art, can you talk us through your process and how you responded initially to the artwork brief?
 Sketch for 'Clever Women' page, with the final Lino-cut below | I spent a while doing rough pencil sketches after looking at all the reference material - very loose sketches at first to get the composition, then tighter to get the details. These were then sent to the publisher for approval, and any changes made. Then I created an iPad drawing to get an approximation of the solidness of Lino and correct balance of black and white. Once approved, I flipped the image so it was backwards, traced it onto the Lino, then carved away. You always get variations when printing, so I would send the publishers a scanned version of the best print. It's a bit of a long process - good job I can work fast! |
Process from sketch to final print, with the medieval painting that inspired the illustration
What was the biggest challenge with this project?
The level of historical accuracy was something I hadn’t really dealt with much before, but I think the hardest bit was the shear scale of the project and keeping track of what stage I was with each image. I learnt loads.
Complete the sentence in relation to your life: ‘Normal Women do….’
A lot!
And finally, if you weren’t lino-cutting, what would your preferred illustration medium be?
Perhaps paper cuts, I have done some before and enjoyed it. Lino-cuts are my one true love though, even when my hand aches and the print gods are not on my side, the first time you ink up a new block and print its pretty magical.
If you'd like to see a video of Alexis' printmaking process on a previous book she worked on for Puffin, click here.
Perhaps paper cuts, I have done some before and enjoyed it. Lino-cuts are my one true love though, even when my hand aches and the print gods are not on my side, the first time you ink up a new block and print its pretty magical.
If you'd like to see a video of Alexis' printmaking process on a previous book she worked on for Puffin, click here.
'Normal Women' is published by Red Shed, an imprint of HarperCollins