Book - Psalms - illustrations

The book Psalms - David and his blues was published as the first in the series of Biblical poetry. From the beginning, it was obvious to the team of people working on the project, that all five books had to have the same visual style. The key decision was inviting painter Miro Pogran to cooperate on the project by illustrating the cover. Miro later also supplied illustrations for the inside of the book.

The same was the case of the book designer, Svetlana Číčelová. All the main elements of the style of the books were decided on during the creating of the Psalms book. The goal was to create a form that would be both artistically interesting and attractive for readers. In the poetic rewriting, each of the books has its own subtitle. Therefore, it was important to harmonize the visual side not only with the title but with the subtitle as well.

In the case of Psalms, the main figure is David and the subtitle „David and his blues“ suggests the overall atmosphere. Only part of the psalms in the Bible are in fact ascribed to David, yet he is so to say the „godfather“ of the genre. A number of psalms are connected to his life or authority in some way, yet their main theme is faith in extreme life situations.

Miro Pogran’s approach to the book cover was to create a contrast between the face of David and the mystical forest behind him. David is not portrayed wearing a king's robe, he is very ordinary, and at the same time, an extraordinary figure. The energy exhudes from his inside, it's not described by any formal visual symbols. The expression in his face was changed several times; it is now both open and insistent.

The mystical forest was distant in some versions of the artwork, but the yellow version is the one that was finally chosen, because it look alive, full of energy and mystery. The sky above is also deep and mysterious, as if it was only a continuation of the forest, where the physical and spiritual meet.

Psalms - David and his blues in poetic rewriting by Daniel Raus was published by Porta libri in 2015. At the moment it exists only in Czech.