Chapter 5
I’m back in Ithaca and working on my thesis!
I was inspired to do the cover for Chapter 5, so I completed that and will now be returning to Chapter 1. The cover page depicts Sibyl Vane and has some purely decorative motifs in the back. The aesthetic elements are very much drawn from the work of Aubrey Beardsley.
Color Study
This is a color study I did last night. I did several versions and this one was the best of the batch. I will still make changes to it – primarily in the bottom panel.
Chapter 1
I have started working on the graphic novel itself at this point. The title page of Chapter 1 is informed by Aubrey Beardsley’s ink work, especially in his use of large areas of black ink. In designing this page, I was looking at the opening passage of the novel: “The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn.”
The second page shows Lord Henry smoking and watching the garden. I looked at several images by Hiroshige and other Japanese artists. The passage being addressed is: “From the corner of the divan of Persian saddle-bags on which he was lying, smoking, as was his custom, innumerable cigarettes, Lord Henry Wotton could just catch the gleam of the honey-sweet and honey-coloured blossoms of a laburnum, whose tremulous branches seemed hardly able to bear the burden of a beauty so flamelike as theirs; and now and then the fantastic shadows of birds in flight flitted across the long tussore-silk curtains that were stretched in front of the huge window, producing a kind of momentary Japanese effect, and making him think of those pallid, jade-faced painters of Tokyo who, through the medium of an art that is necessarily immobile, seek to convey the sense of swiftness and motion.”
Interior Spaces – Basil’s Studio
An ink drawing of Basil’s studio seen through Lord Henry’s perspective.
Sibyl Vane – Initial Character Design
A study for SibylVane’s design. I was looking at Pre-Raphaelite portrayals of women and was particularly drawn to images of Ophelia. Although Sibyl does not play Ophelia, she does play other Shakespearean women. Like Ophelia, she commits suicide.
Dorian Gray – Art Nouveau
This is a current image on which I am working. While this is heavily inspired by Alphonse Mucha’s artwork, it also is informed by other artwork surrounding Wilde. Again, I am looking at Hellenistic artwork and sculpture. For this image, I also looked at paintings of St Sebastian – a favorite symbol of Wilde’s.
Sketch Book – Doom Fulfilled
Oscar Wilde was very fond of pre-Raphaelite artwork. In fact, he decorated his dorm in Oxford with some pre-Raphaelite artwork.
I was particularly drawn (no pun intended) to Edward Burne-Jones’ Doom Fulfilled painting from the Perseus series.
Sketch Book – Donatello’s David
In studying Aubrey Beardsley’s art and Oscar Wilde’s vision of the idea male, I encountered many similarities with Donatello’s bronze David. Here is an unfinished study:
Sketch Book – Aubrey Beardsley
To prepare for my graphic novel, I have researched late 19th-century art. One of the artists whose work I have been looking at is Aubrey Beardsley. He primarily worked in black-and-white. His stylized images are often nightmarish, sexually charged, and very graphic.
