Two years ago, a friend approached me with an idea. He had been working on a writing project & asked if I would be interested in doing some “interpretive” artwork to accompany it?
Of course, I said yes.
The writing project, An Inch of Whiskey, is a series of poems John wrote quickly & intuitively over a short period of time and then collected, intending for some poems to stand alongside their inspired artwork. He describes the poems as a “collection of uncertain sentences.” They are incredibly evocative of the human experience; stumbling through life, trying to make sense of ourselves, our surroundings, and our ambitions, all while haunted by our pasts. They feel much like a dream translated to tangible paper form.
This project was unlike anything I had ever taken on before. Guided by his writing, we settled on a collage style using lots of antique images. I attempted to capture the somewhat surreal, dream-state nature of his works in the pieces. He gave me complete creative freedom and trusted my judgement. What a double-edged sword it was! It was daunting, to say the least. I hoped to please him & to accurately convey his works all while working within the constraints of the project.
This project tested me in many ways. It was a real departure from my usual work & style and was the largest project I have ever been tasked with.
John and I both had a hand in picking which poems to illustrate. There were some he requested specifically, others I chose myself. Some of the poems I gravitated towards because I thought they would be a good challenge due to their length—some were a full page, others just a few words. Still others had wonderful images in the text just begging to be depicted.
My process started with reading through a poem. I often created breaks in the poem to create a pace, pull imagery together, and help myself process the whole. As I read, I noted any ideas, themes, or images that came to mind. If a word or phrase really struck me, I circled or underlined it. I read through a few times to make sure I felt I understood it and had a good grasp on the intent behind the words. Sometimes, I just sat with a poem for a while.
To the right, you can see the notes I took on “Scream Stream.” Though things like tightrope walking and beavers (building dams, I imagine) came up while I read the poem, I ultimately discarded those ideas in favor of the river Styx and sphinx/Goddess of the Underworld sort of archetypal image that hints at the beasts that lurk in the depths of the dreaming or unconscious mind.
Next, I’d read through the notes I’d made in the margins. More often than not, one of the ideas I’d written there was the right direction for the artwork. I’d come up with a loose image idea to work from by sketching. To translate the sketch to a final product I made lists of components to search for on Wikimedia Commons. I wasn’t willing to toe any legal lines, so this was the exclusive source for anything I didn’t create from scratch myself. It was difficult sometimes to find the right royalty-free images to use. Some concepts had to be scrapped altogether because I couldn’t find anything that worked.
Basic layout and sizing work was done in Photoshop. After that, I printed everything out and cut out all the elements. If I had to create my own parts I did it somewhere in here, depending on what the piece needed. Some pieces needed additional things like gouache, watercolor, ink, acrylic, or thread within the artwork. Last, or nearly so, I glued everything down. Sometimes the final piece was nearly identical to the sketch, sometimes wildly different.
Here you can see how the final image shifted slightly from the sketch above. Some of the things I had been searching for in Wikimedia Commons couldn’t be found, like a feather for a fairy-like boat. There was an all-seeing eye collage piece as well, but I opted to paint it on instead to create more contrast and bring more focus to that visual element. The vintage photograph I found for the sphinx/goddess was better and more perfect than could have been expected.
More images can be found on my Commissions page (they’re the four on brown toned paper).
