Janina Ede - R.L. Stevenson artwork

An edition of stories by R.L. Stevenson, titled 'The Amateur Emigrant', was published in 1968 by Heron Books and featured six illustrations by Janina Ede. In this post roughs and try-outs for three of these illustrations are shown alongside their published counterparts. Also shown are three illustrations for the book which never saw publication in any version.

Sketch for 'Monterey' (a)

Sketch for 'Monterey' (b)

Published artwork for 'Monterey'

In the above example preparatory artwork was created for two different elements of the picture which are then combined in the final version. Ede completed a number of try-outs and sketches for the saddle and added her signature to the most finished version (second picture above), perhaps suggesting that she was particularly interested in its formal qualities and had originally thought that it could stand as an illustration by itself.

Sketch for 'Napa Wine' (a)

Sketch for 'Napa Wine' (b)

Rough artwork for 'Napa Wine' (a)

Rough artwork for 'Napa Wine' (b)

Published artwork for 'Napa Wine' 

For the 'Napa Wine' story above Ede produced two near finished rough artworks with the moustached man in the foreground and the bespectacled character in the background. This approach was then abandoned and in the published version the two characters have reversed position. Possibly this was because in the following illustration the moustached character also features prominently (see below).

Rough artwork for 'The Silverado Squatters'

Published artwork for 'The Silverado Squatters'

Shown below are three relatively 'finished' artworks for the 'Amateur Emigrant' book that were not used.

Unpublished artwork for 'The Amateur Emigrant' (1)

Unpublished artwork for 'The Amateur Emigrant' (2)

Unpublished artwork for 'The Amateur Emigrant' (3)