Literal Illustration

Literal illustration - Hand in Glove

For this project I have to create three illustrations based of an episode from a BBC audio drama, 'The man in black'. I have been given an episode called ' hand in glove'. This episode focuses on two sisters, Ethel and Elsie, and their urgency of finding husband and the lengths they go to the receive them, ' A spirited pair of husband seekers'. They live with their Aunt Alysia who is trapped in the memory of her troubled yet brilliant youth. One of the main focus points is the trunks of old clothes Aunt Alysia keeps in the attic filled with her well preserved outfits from here younger days. The sisters are eager to get into these trunks and wear these beautiful outfits to help impress men. The sisters take a dress each but find that they want more, They end up meeting some gentlemen, however the one that Ethel is trying to romance is repulsed by the small of the benzene on her gloves. Ethel at this point had gotten fed up of not being able to get into her aunt's final trunks and ends up suffocating Alysia in order to receive the key. Once she had gotten to the attic things started to get strange, things moving and a rat jumping out at her. Eventually, when she gets to the trunk she struggles at first, then the trunk mysteriously open revealing a veil and the 'elbow length magnolia pure white gloves' that Ethel had been looking for. She begins to get excited until the gloves start reaching for her throat. The gloves end up ripping in the violent act, with Aunt Alysia's voice speaking one last time before Ethel passes.

Notes from reviewing the text

One thing I found challenging with this project is finding the correct time period. There are some phrases that hint to general times like 'Heading back after the great war' and the repeating use of the chemical 'Benzene', This leads me to think that the main plot takes place early 1900's when there is news about ww1 and the ' great war', additionally from looking up benzene I found that it grew in popularity sometime around ww1. The fashion for the episode is set over 2 periods, this being the period it is set in and the time of Aunt Alysia's youth. From the brief descriptions of some of her clothes in the trunks 'Green Taffeta gown' and ' pink satin' these clothes would be from the late 1800's, with the taffeta fabric being most popular around the 1860's.

I have collected a range of references based on fashions and imagery based on the text.

Princesse de Broglie,1851–53. Artist: Jean Auguste Dominique Ingre

I like these fashion illustrations, I'd like to see if I can reflect any of the style throughout my work.

Image above: I'd like to have my main illustration bee the scene of the gloves strangling Ethel. I like the way the hands are illustrated alongside the lack of colours.

Vignette

I want my small black and white illustration to focus on the gloves, I think I can use there simple design for the image.
Since I wanted to focus on gloves, it meant that I needed a better understanding of hands. Here are some of the hands studies that I did.

Reworking the vignette.
After a group conversation I decided to work more on the positioning of the hand and the key. I want it to look like the key is about to go into a lock, to fix this I looked up/ took some references and used them for some sketches.

Empty gloves = creepy

Cover

In my head, the man in black is a faceless being, this lead me to focus my thumbnails on the microphone. I want there to be a sense of mystery, not knowing who the man actually is.

I want to go with a decorative style cover with a detailed border. I want the book to look like it is aged and well used. The type will be serif to make it look more old fashioned.

I imagine the man in black reading the stories in candlelight, This lead me to develop candle based ideas. I wanted a face to show up in the flame to show that these collected stories are strange and dark. I was working with the image of a skull to help show off the reoccurring theme of death throughout many of the stories to help bring out the horror aspect. Additionally, I chose to work in a fire themed colour scheme to help show off my points more.

I like the idea of having the man in black's eyes peering through the flames of the candles. Having them more detailed than the rest of the illustration will help them stand out making it a bit more creepy.

Full-page Illustration

Adding suspense and atmosphere.
After a conversation in a group, we found that the images above weren't giving off the idea of a horror story. I started off by adding to the image itself by desaturating the colours and adding a few more details, like the marks around Ethel's neck and enhancing the stain on the dress.