V is for Vexstein #atoz2025 #booksky

It’s the last Friday of this year’s A to Z Challenge and I’ve reached the place where the baddies turn out to come from, Castle Vexstein. I’m continuing the illustration theme, with a set of internal and external views of Vexstein.

My ten Princelings books and the two for younger readers, Messenger Misadventures and Cavies of Flexford Common all have illustrations. Most are chapter headings. Cavies is designed for younger readers (c 7 yrs old, Key Stage 1 in UK educational parlance). That has illustrations throughout.

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Castle Vexstein

I used the initial image of Castle Vexstein pretty much from book 1 to the end. We get an internal view in the first book, but when Willoughby ends up spending a lot of time there, we get views of the surroundings, a comparison of the squalor its falling into, and in Book 8, we get a view from the rear. and interior scenes. And it all comes back again in Book 10.

In the initial illustration, there is a road from the gate up a ramp surrounded by the dwellings for the community, all protected inside the wall. To the right is the brewery: a beverage called Vex is a recurring element through the series. There’s a bridge from the brewery’s administrative area over to the main castle. Saves the management having to walk around to the front the whole time.

These next two illustrations are as they were scanned into the computer: they were done on a single sheet of paper, one below the other. Top is Vexstein 2012, below is 2015, and both are from Willoughby the Narrator, book 7 in the series.

Copying illustrations

In 2012 Willoughby visits as a narrator, as a representative of Castle Buckmore to explain about the new communications system between castles. He takes the opportunity to have a look around. It helps him get a good feel for the place. Just as well, because by the time he goes back to investigate what is actually going on there in 2015, he finds the community area has degenerated, it is dirty and crowded. The wires on the left going down into the small building are part of the comms system.

This was before I had the iPad. I laid down the upper basic layout in pencil, then copied it to the lower drawing, adding extensions and new buildings and rubbish–and an open sewer running through the street. I discovered that drawing dirt and rubbish is really difficult!

And in both, that nice walkway in the original view of the castle has turned into a covered bridge, so that visitors don’t see the squalor below. This is really the evidence that the other castle leaders aren’t allowed to see. Until Willoughby does his investigations, they have nothing to go on, just suspicions.

By Book 10, Vexstein has had a change of hands, and someone is clearing it up. There are piles of rubbish outside, and a few more minor changes. This was done using the original Vexstein image at the top, and editing it on the iPad. So much easier than copying from scratch!

More views

Vexstein’s walls are thick… the window of the room (more of a closet, he thinks) that Fred is shown into there shows the thickness of them – and a view of the mountains behind. This was used in both books 1 and 10. The hall is where Lord Smallweed holds court, and unlike the other castles that generally have just ‘large’ or ‘small’ halls, his is called the Hearing Hall — as in legal hearings, although they are anything but legal.

We finish with a view of Vexstein from the rear, which was the way Dylan and Dougall approach it in book 8. I confess this is one of my favourites. My cover illustrator Dani English of KanizoArt turned it into something magical.

I start by using pencil (Derwent Cassell HB or 2B) on paper. Then I use an inkpen over to create the line drawing (I have a set of three Pilot Drawing pens, nos 01, 03, and 05). After that, I usually erase the pencil. By book 9 I was doing all my illustrations on the iPad, and I could take a JPEG copy of a hand-drawn castle, and amend it, or change it about a bit, rather than start from scratch.

These come from books 1. The Princelings of the East, 7. Willoughby the Narrator, 8. the Princelings of the North and 10. Princelings Revolution.

I’m Jemima Pett, author, blogger, illustrator and guinea pig wrangler. My interests are in fantasy, environment, science (inc. fiction) and thrillers, to name a few things. This is my nth AtoZ Challenge. Mostly I talk about books. This time I’m talking about something I do without much thinking about… my illustrations.