Artist’s Note

Most of the illustrations in this book were originally created as black-and-white pen-and-ink drawings for a limited edition of Seven Wild Sisters published many years ago. For this current edition, my publisher asked me to refresh those drawings with color. But because the original art had long since been sold, I only had access to digital scans. Using an Adobe Photoshop program, I transformed my complex weave of fine black lines into sepia tones more suited to my application of color. Then, after printing the images on Arches watercolor paper, I applied layer after layer of colored FW Inks.

For the twenty-six illustrations that are new to this edition, I first worked them up in pencil, this time on Strathmore (4 ply) 500 Bristol paper, and then hatched a handmade sepia-toned ink over them using a Hunt Crow Quill 102 nib. In order to give these pieces the same density of line as the original set of illustrations, I momentarily pretended that they would be published only in black and white. Afterward, I erased any loose pencil lines and applied my colors. Can you tell which pieces are new and which ones are old?

—Charles Vess

About This Book

This book was edited by Andrea Spooner and Deirdre Jones and designed by Saho Fujii under the art direction of Dave Caplan and Sasha Illingworth. The production was supervised by Virginia Lawther, and the production editor was Christine Ma. This book was printed on 100-gsm Gold Sun Woodfree paper. The text was set in MrsEaves, and the display type is hand-lettered.