A Question from the Darkside !

[Iain Fenwick]

Sounds Ominous but it's not really ... i was just wondering ... is anyone an avid reader of The Collected Ghost Stories of M.R.James ? ... the reason i ask this is not only because i'm heavily into his Supernatural works but also because i concentrate exclusively on illustrating various scenes from them and if possible i would like to discuss people's ideas concerning how these might look (i'm trying to find a particular style which i can call my own) ... it would help me greatly to visualise what others can see especially from their favourite passages ...

 

[WFMartin]

Sorry, but I am not familiar with M. R. James. H. P. Lovecraft has generally been my favorite for those types of stories. But, I can understand your desire to paint scenes from such literature. I would love to create a painting based upon "Pickman's Model" from H. P. Lovecraft, but I'm not that good at inventing subjects totally from imagination.

 

[Enyaw]

Your quest is futile. You won’t find what you are looking for as what will come from you will eventually encompass your skill and be your style. I need a model but I don't paint the model, I use the model to block in shapes and then I close the book on the model and I paint what comes to mind. I allow the painting to rule. Your style will come of itself from your self. Paint, paint, and paint, until you are happy with what you paint. I would think you would need an excellent grasp of visual memory to depict a scene from your mind. I personally have trouble picturing the same scene twice. Good luck with it. William Blake did some fascinating work from within.

 

[Terri]

I'm not familiar with this author, either. However, if you want feedback and opinions, you could likely share one of the illustrations as your "reference image" when you want to begin, or have already started, your own interpretation. That might be the easiest solution.

That said, I do agree with Wayne that your own style will likely supersede any reference image, so you have to rely a lot on what comes from your mind when viewing them.

 

[Artyczar]

I'm also not familiar, but I'll be interested in how you interpret them in your own hand.

 

[Iain Fenwick]

Thanks for the input everyone ! ... its very much appreciated ... i notice that you're unfamiliar with the subject so ... if i may ... here's a short background to the subject ... Montague Rhodes James was a scholar of classical church literature ... mostly medieval ... during the latter 19th & early 20th centuries ... as a pastime he wrote a series of supernatural fiction ... mostly unrelated ... in the gothic style ... usually to be read out to select students at his lodgings at Christmas & the New Year ( and as an aside ... televised by the B.B.C each year under the title "A Ghost Story for Christmas" ) ... fortunately i've been blessed with a good memory retention & a well developed imagination so visualizing a subject isn't that difficult ... its just that i like to pick up on other interpretations to help me develop mine ... Thanks again and i hope i can soon start on something that can do the stories justice & hopefully ... in his words ... instill ... "a pleasing terror" .

 

[stlukesguild]

I posted elsewhere about my preference for short fiction... in some ways inspired by Edgar Allen Poe's criticism on the subject. Among the work I have been interested in recently are many late 19th and 20th century writers of a fantastical or fabulistic ilk including Poe, Ambrose Bierce, H. P. Lovecraft, Théophile Gautier, Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, J.S. LeFanu, Robert Aickman, Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont, Philip K. Dick, Shirley Jackson, Lord Dunsany, Clark Ashton Smith, Ray Russell, J.L.Borges, Augusto Monterroso, Italo Calvino, etc... James is a writer on my Amazon "wish list". As an unabashed bibliophile, I can certainly appreciate the desire to create a body of art inspired by favorite works of literature. My own creative process has never lent itself to true illustration as I'm often absorbing and synthesizing ideas and images from a broad array.

 

[jahratreza06]

Your quest is futile. You won’t find what you are looking for as what will come from you will eventually encompass your skill and be your style. I need a model but I don't paint the model, I use the model to block in shapes and then I close the book on the model and I paint what comes to mind. I allow the painting to rule. Your style will come of itself from your self. Paint, paint, and paint, until you are happy with what you paint. I would think you would need an excellent grasp of visual memory to depict a scene from your mind. I personally have trouble picturing the same scene twice. Good luck with it. William Blake did some fascinating work from within.

Beautifully spoken