The King in Yellow – The Demoiselle d’Ys

Posted: March 16, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: subject | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

tkiy-dysThis story features a man walking on the french moors, lost until he is found by a woman and her helpers. They take him back to the castle where the man and woman become infatuated with each other, it turns out she’s from the past and he is returned to the present. The image I’ve used for this story is of the hare which is caught at the start of the story by a falcon. It gives across the feeling of threat and has a rather medieval subject matter. This picture had a lot hard things to paint in; the close up grass, the fur, the feathers and the textured bird skin. The darkness of this image does give a strong sense of atmosphere.

The King in Yellow- The Mask

Posted: March 16, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: subject | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

tkiy-maskThis story is about a marble sculptor who invents a liquid that turn anything to marble. In the story he uses it on a gold fish and a flower before using it on people. These two objects take on the symbolism of the two characters. The picture is set on the sculptors desk with hints at cloth, tools and rubble. The challenge was making it look like the objects were made of marble without being able to use the obvious colour change. So the only real method was to make them look stiff and shiny. I quite like the triangular composition of this image, it feels more like a classical still life.

The King in Yellow – The Yellow Sign

Posted: March 16, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: subject | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

tkiy-ysAt the beginning of the story the protagonist, an artist ruins his painting. The paint runs and bleeds to a muddy mess, this is what I have attempted to portray in this painting. I’m not sure if it is clear that at the foreground is a canvas with a painting on. The background, the curtain and window seem quite lazily painted and a little crude, but the lack of detail does mean that your eye is drawn more to the detailed tuned painting. I have tried my best to remove any recognisable features from the panted figure as I felt a face would be a bit distracting.

The King in Yellow – In the Court of the Dragon

Posted: March 16, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: subject | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

tkiy-itcotdIn this story the narrator leaves a church because he is scared of the organist. He runs though Paris in fear that he is being followed, in doing so he passes the place de la concorde. The fountain there is featured in the image, using the figures in place of the characters. The statue is looking over his shoulder in a paranoid manner (well at least it can be seen that way), with the dark imposing figure behind. I have changed around the composition of the fountain so that these two figures line up in this manner. As with all of the images in this series a heavily yellow colour scheme has been used to show the creeping influence of eponymous play. The figures and forms have not been done that well and I would have preferred for the background figures to have been darker and more mysterious.

The King in Yellow – The Repairer of Reputations

Posted: March 15, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: subject | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

tkiy-repThis story centres around a character with a warped perception of he world and is therefore an unreliable narrator. Subway stations are seen as death booths and in his safe is a crown of gold and emblazoned with diamonds which in fact is copper and paste. The crowns design is inspired by art nouveau jewellery. It is at a midpoint of grandiosity, as it is meant to be extremely precious to him but it is described as a diadem for him to be a prince. The dark background makes the the crown stand out more and creates an ambiguous backdrop consistent with the mind of the narrator. The scanned in image shows up the brush marks more than in real life, which I’m not overly keen on as it makes the background less dreamlike.

The King in Yellow – cover

Posted: March 15, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: subject | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

tkiy-coverTo create a cover for this collection of stories I wanted to stay away from anything directly from one of the stories. I also didn’t want to show the king in yellow. So I decided on a material look with the text ‘stitched’ on as this ragged effect would match his robes. For the font I wanted to use art nouveau inspired lettering, as the book was written as part of the decadent movement which was closely associated with art nouveau. I’m not sure that the text looks as though it is attached to the material, it seems to float above. The text is quite subtle which means that it takes slightly longer for it to reveal itself to the viewer.