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Patrick Woodroffe Mythopoeikon Like new softcover, 156 pages - $61 (Vernon Hills)
condition:
like new
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Mythopoeikon
Like new softcover, 156 pages
First published in 1976 by Paper Tiger Publishing, ‘Mythopoeikon’ was one of a number of art books of that era that came to be in every stoner’s library (along with 'Eschatus', by Bruce Pennington, ‘Views’ by Roger Dean, and 'Beauty and the Beast', by Chris Achilleos).
Patrick Woodroffe (1940 – 2014) emerged as a significant figure in commercial art in the UK in the 1970s, through his covers for paperback books in the science fiction and fantasy genres. Woodroffe also produced covers for vinyl LPs, and a children’s book, ‘Mickey’s New Home’ (1976).
‘Mythopoeikon’ is an overview of Woodroffe’s work as it stood in the mid-1970s. It showcases his ability to work with a variety of media, including oils, acrylics, watercolors, pen and ink, and even dioramas and etchings. Woodroffe’s art is noticeable for its intricacy, bright colors, and use of marbling. Woodroffe provided cover art for many of the most well-known science fiction and fantasy novels of the 1970s, so don’t be surprised if looking through the pages of the book leads you to seek out those novels, solely on the basis of Woodroffe’s creative imaginings.
The text that accompanies the artwork is provided by Woodroffe, and illustrates the thoughts behind the process of composing artwork for commercial purposes. Woodroffe was attentive to reading the books he was assigned to illustrate and he was focused on communicating the essence of a given novel in his compositions. In this, I believe he was successful more often than not.
Fans of fantasy art and commercial art, particularly art from the era before the advent of digitally composed art, likely will want a copy of ‘Mythopoeikon’.