Friday 28 December 2012

The Hunting of the Snark (match, pin, slate etc.)







Illustrations for The Hunting of the Snark, Artists' Choice Editions, 2006.

For The Hunting of the Snark there are a few instances when I have drawn illustrations that are essentially figures of speech. A match was not struck in reality on the Snark’s hide, nor did a pin actually drop when the Snark pronounced the pig’s sentence amid the hushed silence in court. I have thus illustrated these subjects in the spirit of nonsense. Similarly we are not able to hear the Jubjub’s voice but it reminded the Butcher of his school days – the sound of a pencil squeaking on a slate. And so we can see the sound of a squeak in the same way as the notion of a pin dropping. When the crew continued their search, after they had lost the Baker, they found ‘not a button, or feather, or mark’. No forensic evidence was left to help them trace ‘where the Baker had met with the Snark’. I have thus chosen to draw what wasn’t there.


3 comments:

  1. You are, I believe, the first illustrator of 'The Snark' since Henry Holiday to bring a nonsensical dimension to the job!

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  2. Don't forget Mahendra Singh's nonsense. - Happy New Year, Goetz

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    Replies
    1. Hi Goetz

      Mahandra Singh's illustrations for the Snark are truly magnificent.
      What is he working on now?

      A Happy New Year to you too.
      JVL

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