Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Heart of Darkness Continued

Tonight was the last night of my illustration class. I can't believe how fast the semester went by, and I am sad it is over. The last assignment was to create a book cover. If you have been following my posts you would have seen the rough idea drawings for my "Heart of Darkness" cover. I knew I wanted to use the character Kurtz for the cover, but I grappled with how he should be presented.

To help me decide I reread sections of the book and concluded that the direction I had been going was too brutal. The character Kurtz is ruthless, but he is also sophisticated. He is the type of person who could break your neck with his bare hands one second, or give you the best advice you have ever heard the next. Kurtz is a man who traded his humanity for knowledge and power, and sacrificed everything to satisfy his evil curiosities.

So, I scaled back the rage and let my pencil search for a Kurtz with a deceptively calm exterior. Mysterious and unpredictable.

I arrived with this pencil sketch below of a Rasputin like character. I then colored it with watercolor and prisma pencil, and added the copy with photoshop. I hope it captures the inner darkness of us all.





Graphite, watercolor, and prisma color pencils on cold press illustration board. 8.5x11"






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