Thursday 11 November 2010

Illustration Friday - Afterwards


Originally this was started as an idea for a contest on Red Bubble that asked for an illustration of a poem, conveniently the theme of Illustration Friday this week - Afterwards - also fits in perfectly with my idea.
The poem is this one -

Time Does Not Bring Relief: You All Have Lied

by Edna St. Vincent Millay 

Time does not bring relief; you all have lied   
Who told me time would ease me of my pain!   
I miss him in the weeping of the rain;   
I want him at the shrinking of the tide;
The old snows melt from every mountain-side,   
And last year’s leaves are smoke in every lane;   
But last year’s bitter loving must remain
Heaped on my heart, and my old thoughts abide.   
There are a hundred places where I fear   
To go,—so with his memory they brim.   
And entering with relief some quiet place   
Where never fell his foot or shone his face   
I say, “There is no memory of him here!”   
And so stand stricken, so remembering him.
It's such a sad, heart achingly unhappy story and I hope that I managed to capture the mood of it here.  The background was black ink thrown in a slapdash manner at some cold press water colour paper, 11x16, with lots of water and much splattering which I enjoy greatly (although afterwards I had to clean quite a lot of it off of the kitchen which I don't enjoy so much) The ever so sad lady was drawn on to tracing paper in ink and then painted on the reverse before getting down to the nitty gritty and adding all the detail on the front.  The background details were added lastly with black and white ink.
I've really fallen for the tracing paper technique, I suspect I'm going to be using it quite a bit in the future, especially seeing as I had to buy a pad of 50 sheets from the super expensive town centre art shop this week.  I'm so disorganised!  Hopefully next time i'll be using it for some slightly more cheerful subject matter though!  Happy Thursday! XXX

5 comments:

  1. Lovely details in this and I like the layering, too!!

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  2. A beautiful if a little somber piece. I like the transprancy of the figure (never thought of using tracing paper in this way), Great work on the detail.

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  3. oh wooooow! i love the picture sooo much!

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  4. Thank you ever so much to all of you, it means so much to me when people say kind things, your positive words give me lots of encouragement when I'm feeling a tad negative and doubtful, hugs x

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  5. ~the words you have chosen to go along with your drawing couldn't have been more fitting for such...your art is gorgeous...unique in your own style which makes it stand out so much...i can't wait to see more coming...truly a beautiful piece created...warm wishes and brightest blessings~

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