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!