carson & colin

really i just want to talk about carson, but colin will come in later. for now, allow me to present carson ellis, lady illustrator! i hadn't realized it but i'd been staring at her distinct book cover designs for quite some time...:

composer is dead / american nonrequired reading / mysterious benedict society

pretty brilliant, right? i'll come back to her book covers in a second. first, i want to show some more of her actual artwork, which is meticulous and often employs warm, antique-y colors. it makes you feel as though you are looking at an old, sepia-tone photograph, kind of brought to life through her pen + ink.







her illustration style reflects, in my opinion, the lyrics + music of her husband, writer + decemberists frontman colin meloy. in his songs, meloy uses a seriously fantastic vocabulary, including words like tarlatan, dalliant, languor, and fontanelle. he decorates his lyrics with these words in much the same way that ellis adorns her art with tiny details, such as the stitching in clothing and nails in the roof.

ellis + meloy have joined forces before—she's created album art for the decemberists. well, now the two of them are bringing their work together in the form of....


b o o m ! it's wildwood, a young adult novel, and because we happen to get advance copies of things in my line of work, i managed to get my lucky hands on this. hooray! it has been some time since i've read a ya novel, so that will be fun. plus, it's so pretty.

well, that's the word on ellis + meloy, folks: they make beautiful things together.
now let's all have a very lovely monday, shall we?
cheers!

Comments

  1. Oh man, I am so excited about this new collaboration of theirs--I have been looking forward to it for months. I am so curious to read Meloy's prose, as I love his song lyrics. What a creative couple--and lucky you for getting an advance copy!

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  2. just a few more months to go...! his prose is a delight--it goes perfectly with her illustration style. they are a match made in creative heaven.

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