Take your eye off something for a moment, and suddenly the new becomes old and devalued. Who is to blame for this? Překlep a Škraloup is a Czech children’s book about the small creatures, living all around us, responsible for the process of ageing.
The book follows two unlikely heroes, Překlep, which means ‘typo’, and Škraloup means ‘crust’. Překlep, who specialises in publishing mistakes, one day realises that his co-workers do not care for broken nor old things and embarks on a journey to stop the ravages of time.
The idea of the book was created by Tomáš Končinský (writer) and Daniel Špaček (illustrator). Along the way, Končinský was joined by Barbora Klárová and together they wrote the whole story. Špaček, who illustrated the complex layouts for the book worked closely with typographer Petr Štěpán. It was a collaborative process, each part influencing each other, with parts of writing inspired and written after some of the artwork. All four authors are from the Czech Republic and met while working at Czech Television Kids channel.
Daniel Špaček, who had to draw hundreds of characters and intricate scenes, took an average of four days for each big double page illustration. He took roughly half a year to complete all the illustrations, working entirely in Procreate on the iPad Pro. He decided to use Procreate after experimenting with the tool and finding it allowed him to have a natural workflow and the ability to draw anywhere. Some issues arose from the heavy use of the app, but overall he was happy he decided to test a new software instead of using traditional Photoshop. He also made use of Procreate’s ability to record timelapse videos, which you can watch here and here.
Překlep a Škraloup was published by Albatros, October 2016. It is an epic self-contained story but the exciting world of entropic pixies has tempted the team to discuss a follow-up story. They are also currently in the process of looking for an English publisher. You can see more image on Špaček’s Behance page, and buy the book here.
