Here are the other drawings! Noel and Antonia had a very clear idea: they wanted a drawing looking like a photography...Noel's character had a picture of himself taken in that moonlit scenery. First the picture is normal, and then he sees a tiny black figure appear...it has a kind of "weeping angel" terror feel! don't shut your eyes!
I could not make four a3 drawings in two weeks of work, so I just made that scenery, and made the different bits separately. I did not have photoshop, so I made it the old way, by cutting with a very sharp scalpel. A bit of blu tack, and a scan, and it was done!

Funnily enough, this kind of lonely road, and hooded figure are recurrent in my work. When I was in my twenties, I worked on a project, named "the Psychopmpe". It was inspired by a recurrent dream  I was making at some point in my life. It was utterly terrifying, and I was glad when this dream stopped. In my dream I never saw the face of the hooded figure. Noel and Antonia wanted it to appear little by little, to be revealed for the last drawing.

For the last hooded figure, I wanted it to cling to the character, tried different bits, and my boyfriend suggested I made him lean closer, as if whispering. So I made it crooked and bended, a bit like the tree, with a tentacle like cape (ahh my late Lovecraft readings are also getting in my head).
For the face, I thought kind of mismatched eyes were important...with one really dark. I still think it reminds me of Nosferatu, but heh, I love my classical horror.

During all the project, I watched bad horror movies as I was working, to get into the mood. Why bad? because why wasting a good one? Just the  creepy sound effects and the half gazing helped me really immerse myself into it.  Mr Carden in the end, was really creeped out by the experience,  as it was two weeks of full horror at home! I understand why some artists have a special room now ;) (thanks Dave for bearing with me).

Well, that's all for today! Here are the dates of the show again, and their website... please go and see Box Tale's soup "Casting the runes", you won't be disappointed! I loved their adaptation of "Northanger Abbey", it was charming, funny, witted. You will absolutely forget that their puppets are puppets, very much like Jim Henson's puppets...


http://www.boxtalesoup.co.uk/


Sun 4th May, 8pm
Brighton Fringe

Sun 25th May, 8pm
Brighton Fringe

Mon 26th May, 8pm
Brighton Fringe

Sun 1st June, 8pm
Brighton Fringe

1st - 23rd August, 6pm
Edinburgh Fringe

Have a good day, Elisabeth neveux

Box Tale's soup's "Casting the runes"....

It has been a long long time since I last posted something.
I was not drawing much, because I was slightly lacking ideas about what to draw.
So during these months I have been feeding on books like I had not done in years!

THen things hapenned, and I was very happy to be asked by Antonia Christophers and Noel Byrne, the brilliant creators from Box Tale's soup  , to create drawings for their new play: Casting the Runes, by M.R James!
When I first heard about their new play, I was getting so excited about it, I might have pestered them with lots of documentation about ghosts...(it must have been tough on them)

By the way, they had a very clear idea about what they wanted, and it was just so enjoyable.
Don't hesitate one second to see their plays, I have been spellbound by their adaptation of Northanger Abbey. Here is their website: http://www.boxtalesoup.co.uk/
This artwork will be used during the play :)

 It all started with a moonlit scenery...the first sketch I made was chosen...They liked the crooked tree on the rough design, and I developed it, by first reproducing it in a more detailed way with a pentel pencil, and then used my new nibs from Joseph Gillott (2788, it's so soft to draw with these). For the floor, I kind of wanted a mossy effect, a kind of soft feel but still eerie! I made the full moon quite big to reinforce the weirdness.

Lately Edward Gorey influences me a lot, and also all the different books I have been reading. One of the people who motivated me the most is Enrique Alcatena, who also has a blogger! He illustrated the wonderful book series Shankar. Seing his work pushed me to be more thoughtful on my drawings, and taking more time when developing them, put more effort and concentration into observing how lights are. His work is wonderful and very inspirative!


Here is the result, I hope you will like it, as much as I loved working on it!

I wish I had had more time to develop more the scenery (but at the same time, the scenario asked for a room in whole dark).  Used ink (Windsor and Newton, which smells like fish), nibs and brushes :)

Storyboard part 2

Storyboard Court Metrange (beware, contains a bit of nudity...and blood).

Howdy readers!

it has been a while since I last posted something here! Almost one year ago, I moved to UK after an epic ferry boat trip, with Mr Carden and a very upset cat.
This year has been filled with job hunt, a few drawings orders, a zine fair (did I post about it?), and foraging, lots of foraging...
I finally have found a job, and will start on Monday, and I'm so very happy about it!

I haven't stayed iddle during these months of employement, and my biggest piece of work was a storyboard for the "court Metrange Festival. The Scenario is by Israel Madano. (let's hope it will be helpful for the following events for his work!).

I had already seen storyboards, like the ones from "the Birds" (Hitchcock exhibition at Pompidou, when I was in my cough cough....twenties), and also the wonderful Miyazaki ones, which made me melt.
But Never oh never had I tried to make one. It is quite a complicated process, mostly when you don't now how to. I want to dig it a bit further at some point, with documentation.

Anyway, it was an intense process, with a short amount of time to realize it (3 weeks in between job center appointments), and I made it. I can see I still need to work hard( hey I had not made any exhibition since last year;s surgery) but here is the result:
I hope you will enjoy! Elisabeth

Burlesque Dancer with fans

a little drawing I made recently, using watercolour....it was the first time I was paiting the lines with a brush....