Little Poe

…But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing farther then he uttered — not a feather then he fluttered —
Till I scarcely more than muttered, "Other friends have flown before —
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before."

Quoth the raven, "Nevermore."


Without getting into too much detail at this stage – if only to not to foretell too many of my planned upcoming images – Edgar Allan Poe has made a few appearances in my conscious thought lately. In terms of my unconscious thought: well, if I can figure out why I’m back in college and sincerely afraid I haven’t paid the rent on my apartment that just happens to be the house my dad grew up in, I’ll let you know.

This was an interesting character study for sure. From all the images I first collected and studied, it became very clear that I was seeing – perhaps better said sensing – not one but two ‘faces’ for Edgar. One seemed to be very sure, very handsome, even with a touch of haughtiness or even obvious intellectual superiority. The other however appeared sad, pale and withdrawn. As such, I approached it almost as two separate drawings, one for the left and the other for the right side.

It came out okay I think, even though you could argue that Poe is not an instantly recognizable face. Unless that is, you DO know him; then I guess here he is, as there is very little variety in either photographs or other images. Still, I found myself realizing how little I know about HIM personally. I even wondered if he were left- or right-handed and what maybe had even led to his uneven look (I know he was in poor health after the death of his wife, but before that?). Something to look into in all my ‘spare’ time.

Another thing I enjoyed about this piece is that I am finally seeing some personal progress in planning ahead for ‘backgrounds’. In this case, I wanted to use a very – not dark but not well-lit either – environment. I openly admit that I once again relied heavily on the style of Mike Mignola (he of Hellboy fame) and the very subdued colors of Dave Stewart (he NOT of Eurythmics fame). So along with the occasional dab of red splashed in (should be = 6 times, but probably only 5 can be seen), this part of the learning was fun to push forward!! Enjoy!!