Beating a Dead Horse

Ok. The above bookpainting is actually pretty old- probably about 6 or 7 years. I found it in my closet while cleaning and thought I’d post it, since it's inspired by Crime and Punishment.

Even though I’m sure everyone has been forced to read (or sparknote) C&P at some point in your lives, I’ll give a (really) short synopsis anyway:

Main character (Raskolnikov) is fed up with the way people are treated. He believes that God’s law is greater than man’s law- so if he breaks man’s law but it’s cool with God, then he can’t really get in trouble. So he decides to kill this old lady that’s screwing everyone over. Once he does, he starts to feel guilty about it and ultimately gets arrested because this new philosophy of his isn’t how real life works.

To the sketch: Raskolnikov has a dream that he’s a young boy that watches a man beat his horse to death in the middle of town. None of the townspeople care about the horse or the beating or Raskolnikov’s tiny protests. Raskolnikov is heartbroken over the horse’s death and everyone else goes on their way. The horse is HUGE, I know- The disproportionate size is supposed to symbolize the gravity of what the horse represents to the dreamer. Just go with it.

I’ve heard this dream explained a number of times. Raskolnikov = Raskolnikov, Horse = his new way of life, Man = his Guilt, townspeople = cops/townspeople. I’ve also heard it analyzed in more detail as Raskolnikov = 12 apostles, Horse = Christ, Man = Romans, Townspeople = Jews, etc. Or you can combine the two analyses and tie everything together. Yay for reading between the lines.

Whichever way you look at it…it was still a pretty intense dream with some very imaginative visual potential.

What Day Is It?

The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton

I'm tempted to forgo the explanation of this booksketch, for comedic effect. An old man hurdling a baby carriage? Vat in ze vurld?

Well, I can't do that to you. The old man above is Professor de Worms, a German professor as old as death and perpetually on his last legs. He is one of seven individuals on a anarchist council-of-sorts, one individual for each day of the week. The main character in the novel, Syme, was thrust into the council as part of an undercover sting set to bust the anarchist and their leader, Sunday. Syme ends up being Thursday, hence the title of the book.

Each of the council members is very peculiar in his own way. Professor de Worms appears to be always on the brink of death. Syme was very surprised to find the Prof tailing him one day after a council meeting. Try as he might, Syme could not shake the Prof. Now, there was no baby-jumping in the novel; I just threw that in there to make myself laugh, but the chase did involve some pretty strenuous physical activity, which perplexed and unsettled Syme as much as it did myself.

I can't tell you the reason for the sudden instillation of life into the old coot, but I will say that that Chesterton is an amazing author, haha. This book has plenty of fun twists.

About the illustration:
Originally inked with Prismacolor pens and then colored in Photoshop.

Conch'd Up

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

First off, I apologize for the lack of booksketches as of late. I've been having to do a lot of preparing to move into my own house, and spent a weekend out of town, and just have been busy in general. It has been a stressful/down couple of weeks. I'll be trying to move this weekend, so hopefully things will settle down after that.

Lord of the Flies is a novel that places children in an extreme situation and lets animalistic instincts play out and snowball. Without the presence of adults, the children on the deserted island have to cooperate, organize, and communicate to survive. When their makeshift society starts to break down, immaturity morphs into a dangerous tribal sensation. Craving for power and control where there is essentially none. You want to control the conch and the fire and the meat; you don't want the "opposition" to have it.

Once the conch-led democracy dissipated into the more savage tribe-led society, the rules changed. That's because whoever had the power made the rules. And the power belonged to young boys hefting sharp sticks and sporting painted faces.

About the illustration:
Haha, sorry, this image popped into my head and I just had to draw it. The ultimate representation of authority on the island: a conch wearing Piggy's glasses. If this combination would have come into existance, maybe they would have worshipped it! The true "Lord of the Flies," eh?

This illustration was done using Prismacolor pens.