Biblio Art Prize

 Illustrating 'The Wolf in the Whale'

Port Fairy Bookseller and Art Gallery, Blarney Books run the annual Biblio Art Prize. I entered last year with a graphite pencil work and have just completed this year's entry. 

Each entrant is given a book to base an artwork on, the more literary the better (it is a bookshop after all). I am afraid I am not very 'literary' in my artwork, but I have certainly enjoyed reading 'The Wolf in the Whale' by Jordanna Max Brodske. Creating an artwork for this exciting novel has been a bit of a head scratch. 

I wanted to show the Arctic environment, the drama of conflict and the relationship between the Inuit gods and Norse invading gods. I decided to work in inks as I felt that this medium was bolder and would strongly emulate the ice fields and cold landscape. 

So I created a work using the Raven as the theme and incorporated various other elements from the book - wolf prints and blood in the snow, lunar eclipse, Inuksuk (Inuit stone statues) and elements of Norse influence - a quote from the book transcribed into long branch Younger Futhark runes. Thank you Google and 'The Viking Rune' website! 

So this is what I did:

...and its a bit 'meh'. Or rather, I don't think it is all that great. Its okay, has all the elements, but leaves me cold (pun not intended). Just a bit too fussy, too literal and didn't really make me happy. It's going into the 'Nope' folio.

So I thought on it for awhile, and then started sketching and doodling about. I love the clean, simple lines of Inuit sculpture, and began to draw shapes and forms of the Arctic animal/gods to emulate that sort of pared back minimalist form. But my drawings had to be my own as I am very aware of the dangers of cultural borrowing and appropriation.

As I worked I started to have more and more fun, eventually incorporating all the elements into a frieze effect, each figure merging into the next and forming new shapes. Lots of cutting out shapes and positioning or flipping and redrawing to come to a final composition. All the Gods are there to defeat the approaching Ragnarok! Plus the ice floes and the trapped Norse ship... even the symbol for Loki makes and appearance.

The final work has been done in Art Spectrum Black acrylic ink which has a lovely matt black finish. Drawn and painted onto Lana 250gsm Bristol Board, the sharp contrast between the black and white works well to create the feel of the frozen north I wanted. I am a lot happier with this second work than the first.

But not to give away the entire thing just yet...  I am only showing here are a couple of details from the final work - I will post the entire piece closer to the final deadline of the competition. Here is hoping it gets accepted!