Tuesday, 20 October 2015

About the Author: Visual Journal III






 In Poe's stories such as 'The Black Cat' and 'The Tell Tale Heart' guilt and paranoia is an important theme, that usually leads to the main characters undoing. Poe himself was also very paranoid in the last years of his life, constantly thinking people were after him to the point he had a friend shave his moustache so that no one would recognise him.

I started thinking about how guilt would be portrayed as it's an internal feeling.

One idea was a man looking in a mirror, his reflection showing his face covered in blood - with a knowing expression, as guilt is a personal thing this sort of gives the 'you know what you did' feeling.

Another idea was a face surrounded my eyes all looking in at them - suggesting paranoia of everyone else knowing what they've done.

A few classmates have said they really like this so I think I will push the 'judging eye' motif forward. - It also relates to the stories of The Tell Tale Heart and The Black Cat as the 'victims' have something going on with their eyes (The old man has a glossed over blue eyes and the cat has one eye cut out)

(I have also been wondering how I could incorporate a skull motif onto a woman without it being directly on the face, I like the idea of putting it on the skirt as it could easily be disguised as folds to be more subtle)

I just like drawing women so I wondered if there were a way I could incorporate some of the themes into one image, including the judging eyes on the skirt - guilt/paranoia. The skull in her hands & general ghostly presence - Death. (also a little Raven skull just for whimsy). I like how this looks and would like to do a proper painted version of it, but I'm also unsure if it's appropriate, but I think the idea of incorporating something within the shape of something else could be successful. 


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