The Masque Of The Red Death
I am delighted to announce that my image for The Masque of the Red Death has made the longlist of the Folio Society Illustration Competition 2022.
EDIT [May 2023]: The Masque of the Red Death also made the WIA 2023 Longlist!
EDIT [July 2023]: It made the WIA 2023 SHORTLIST too!!!
EDIT [September 2023}: The Masque of the Red Death was HIGHLY COMMENDED at the World Illustration Awards 2023 in the Professional Publishing Category!!!
A friend insisted: “They are doing The Masque Of The Red Death this year. You cannot miss it. It’s right down your alley!”
It is true that I love Poe’s work and it’s also true that this particular story touches on a lot of my interests: medieval setting, plague iconography… I had even done a poster about it a couple of years back (based in the Roger Corman’s film adaptation rather than the tale).
It’s also no secret that I would love to work with the Folio Society. So, even though I was very tight for time, I decided it would be worth trying at least to get my work in front of them.
I set off by completely ignoring anything I had done before. I read the story a few times with fresh eyes trying to identify ideas or themes I would have not picked up on before.
It’s extremely important to take note of all the ideas that come up when reading the story. Sometimes they come in a more orderly way than others. In this instance, I think I can show you something representative of that part of the process in these two images from two different sketchbooks (I always carry a bunch of them and I still don’t know well why).
In these two next samples you can see how the work in character, composition and theme takes shape. All very generic and loose.
Simultaneously I start working those same ideas digitally in the iPad.
When everything is more or less clear in my head I start developing all the different elements. In this case using oil pastels, graphite and digital tools.
Finally, when everything is ready, it’s just a matter of putting everything together in Procreate and Photoshop making sure the image still makes sense. Most of the time I have way more than I need and images tend to get too busy. This is the time to evaluate how the image reads and how much editing it needs.
It’s a bit like peeling it back layers until you are left with the essence of the story: that’s the final image.
Thank you to Folio Society and all the judges for selecting my work along with the other amazing illustrations. I am truly humbled and honoured.
And thank you for staying this long on the article and for your continued support.