This is the original colour sketch for Butterflies painted by Clifford and Rosemary Ellis in late 1944 at twice the size of the printed jacket using gouache on watercolour paper. Note the hand-lettered title and the prototype New Naturalist emblem on the spine.
Lithographic designs produced by Clifford and Rosemary Ellis during the 1930s for novels published by Jonathan Cape Ltd (above) and posters advertising social evenings at London Zoo and an international cricket match at The Oval.
The evolution of a New Naturalist dustjacket. Starting with pencil sketches from life and material gleaned from other sources, the Ellises worked out a design, made a colour sketch and finally produced the finished artwork for the printer, in this case a perfect realisation of The Rabbit (1956).
Sketches and printer’s proof for The Folklore of Birds (1958).
Colour sketches for The Herring Gull’s World and Insect Natural History and the actual artwork for The Yellow Wagtail, drawn to scale in three colours.
The evolution of the Bumblebees jacket through colour sketches to the printer’s proof.
The first design for Weeds and Aliens (1961) – a thornapple in flower and fruit – and its subsequent replacement by red poppies in a wheat field.
The Open Sea: (1) The World of Plankton. The original artwork of planktonic life, the seascape substituted at the request of the publishers and the printer’s proof for a never-used jacket. Which one is most effective at projecting the book?
Original artwork for Pesticides and Pollution (1967) and Ants (1977) and the modified designs actually used.
The original designs by Clifford and Rosemary Ellis for Wild Orchids of Britain (1951), Fossils (1960) and Man and Birds (1971); and the unused design for a reprint of Mushrooms and Toadstools.
Colour sketch and printed jackets of Trees, Woods and Man (1956) and Lords and Ladies (1960).
Ferns: Four flat colours with some overprinting.
Moths: Four colours using tints.
Seashore: four colours using black lino block and tints.
Northumberland: a full 11-colour linocut print. On the printed jacket the white county border accidentally slipped a little to the right.
(a) The initial pencil sketch was chaotic with too many images.
(b) An idea using a map of the British Isles was tried and discarded.
(c) Instead a stretch of countryside was introduced.
(d) The finished jacket. The harvest mouse was changed at the last moment. The flying lapwing survived from the earliest sketch, its boldly patterned head working well on the spine.
First ideas and abandoned designs. The first idea for a jacket often contains the germ of the eventual design. Some need little change, while others were radically revised.
In the original Lakeland design the peregrine was too dominating and the right side was rather blank.
The first design for Amphibians and Reptiles combined several images that didn’t integrate well. The adder on the spine survived on the final design.
On the original design for British Bats the large bat came out ‘looking as if it had been pinned to a dissecting board’. A more lively bat was substituted.
Printer’s colour separations for the jacket of Wild and Garden Plants (1993).
A New Naturalist in his element. J Morton Boyd ascending Stac an Armin, St Kilda in 1969. Photograph by Dick Balharry.