''oubliette'' / narrative illustration

(in order: artworks i & ii, visual ideas/literal brainstorming/rough outline for third artwork - illustration year 2 LOVE a good visual over a final artwork sometimes)

three images for a two week narrative project; visuals taken from picked elements of a selection of texts given to us as a brief, two final artworks and one simple visual to be rendered depicting said text. ''oubliette'' is the claustrophobic, dark and paranoia-inducing thoughts of a man who is troubled by his environment and mental status, believing himself to be part man, part rat, or perhaps one or the other but trapped inside of the others mind. it's a very personal short-story, relying upon the readers own interpretation to determine a suitable finish and concluding thoughts, and that i found quite interesting.

i wanted the images to really give off an atmospheric sense of claustrophobia and a quirky, almost schizophrenic energy within the mark making and imagery to reflect the characters thoughts on himself and his surroundings, never quite creating anything too clear or obvious but instead using a continous theme of obvious sewer references amongst a whole jumble of less blatent marks and drawings. my thoughts on the text are that it's loosely refined for the reason that the viewer must create his or her own image of the character and his place of habitat through what is told in the writing and i wouldn't want my images to influence or pursuade their train of thought otherwise - simply, i wanted to create visuals that the reader could take in at their own pace and to really just create backdrops for the narrative. whether or not this is a ''correct'' method for commercial narrative illustration is beyond me, i personally prefer the writing to reinforce my thoughts. i took a lot of influence from henrik drescher's book ''turbulence'' during the creation of these, which might explain a lot, both in visual form and for my ethic towards the illustrations.

fun project, nonetheless.

driving force: chickenhawk s/t, clouddead s/t, the arteries ''dead sea'', 65dos ''heavy sky'' ep, &u&i ''kill the man that shot that man'' ep, vessels ''white fields and open devices'', rival schools s/t, zine ideas, two weeks of free out of studio time, autumn chill, burnt umbers and oranges from withered trees, damnation festival on approach.....