A perfect way to close 2009

I actually have a bit of time off over this New Year's weekend, so I will be spending it visiting friends and family and enjoying the end of the year. Regular art posting will begin again either next Monday or Tuesday night, depending on how jarring the return to the work week is.

In the meantime, I wanted to share with you an incredible thing. Hannah Stephenson, who blogs at The Storialist, writes daily poems imspired by images found online. Somehow she came across this project and, inspired by my illustration for Page 115, she crafted an exquisite poem titled "Ships Set Out." You can read that poem at her blog here as well as a great deal of her other work.

One of the most fascinating things about this project to illustrate every page of Moby-Dick has been hearing from other people and learning how my endeavor has affected them, impacted them, or even inspired them. It is honestly a very humbling experience, but that contact means a great and it is especially thrilling when some small effort of mine can cause a greater reaction somewhere else. So hearing from Hannah and reading her poem was the best way to close out this year and the first 4 months of this project.

I hope you all have an exciting, peaceful, safe and happy New Year. I'll be back in a few days.

MOBY-DICK, Page 117

Title: Reality outran apprehension; Captain Ahab stood upon his quarter-deck.

7.75 inches by 11 inches
colored pencil and ink on found paper
December 29, 2009

MOBY-DICK, Page 116

Title: But it was especially the aspect of the three chief officers of the ship, the mates, which was most forcibly calculated to allay these colorless misgivings, and induce confidence and cheerfulness in every presentment of the voyage.

9 inches by 6.25 inches
ink on found paper
December 28, 2009

MOBY-DICK, Page 115

Title: For several days after leaving Nantucket, nothing above hatches was seen of Captain Ahab.

7 inches by 7.75 inches
ink on found paper
December 27, 2009

MOBY-DICK, page 114

Title: Third among the harpooneers was Daggoo, a gigantic, coal-black negro-savage, with a lion-like tread - an Ahasuerus to behold. Suspended from his ears were two golden hoops, so large that the sailors called them ring-bolts...

7.75 inches by 11 inches
acrylic paint, ink and marker on found paper
December 27, 2009

MOBY-DICK, Page 113

Title: Next was Tashtego, an unmixed Indian from Gay Head, the most westerly promontory of Martha's Vineyard, where there still exists the last remnant of a village of red men, which has long supplied the neighboring island of Nantucket with many of her most daring harpooneers.

5.75 inches by 8 inches
colored pencil, ink and marker on found paper
December 26, 2009

Guest Illustrator at Quotizzle.com

Charlie Curran and Emily Quintero are two art school students who decided to create a web site called Quotizzle.com which features intriguing quotes, selected by Charlie, paired with exquisite illustrations by Emily. Interestingly, the quotes themselves are actually part of the illustrations that Emily is creating. They've set themselves the goal of posting a new quote and illustration every day, yet for December they were kind enough to invite me to be a guest illustrator.

I selected one of my favorite quotes from Moby-Dick, a passage from Chapter 60: The Line. I wanted to do something special for their site, so this is not an illustration I will be re-using in my own series of pieces for Moby-Dick. You can see my illustration on their site here.

Many thanks to Charlie and Emily for inviting me to be a part of their project.

MOBY-DICK, Page 112

Title: The third mate was Flask, a native of Tisbury, in Martha's Vineyard. A short, stout, ruddy young fellow, very pugnacious concerning whales, who somehow seemed to think that the great Leviathans had personally and hereditarily affronted him; and therefore it was a sort of point of honor with him, to destroy them whenever encountered.

8.5 inches by 10 inches
acrylic paint, ink and marker on found paper
December 23, 2009

MOBY-DICK, Page 111

Title: Stubb was the second mate. He was a native of Cape Cod; and hence, according to local usage, was called a Cape-Cod-man. A happy-go-lucky; neither craven nor valiant; taking perils as they came with an indifferent air...

8.5 inches by 10 inches
acrylic paint, colored pencil and ink on found paper
December 21, 2009

MOBY-DICK, Page 110

Title: Men may seem detestable as joint stock-companies and nations; knaves, fools, and murderers there may be; men may have mean and meagre faces; but man, in the ideal, is so noble and so sparkling, such a grand and glowing creature, that over any ignominious blemish in him all his fellows should run to throw their costliest robes.

8.5 inches by 11 inches
colored pencil and ink on found paper
December 20, 2009

MOBY-DICK, Page 109

Title: "I will have no man in my boat," said Starbuck, "who is not afraid of a whale."

11 inches by 7.75 inches
colored pencil, ink and marker on found paper
December 19, 2009

MOBY-DICK, Page 108

Title: The chief mate of the Pequod was Starbuck, a native of Nantucket, and a Quaker by descent. He was a long, earnest man...

8.5 inches by 10 inches
acrylic paint, ink and marker on found paper
December 17, 2009

MOBY-DICK, Page 107

Title: ...for a whale-ship was my Yale College and my Harvard.

7.75 inches by 11 inches
ballpoint pen and ink on found paper
December 16, 2009

MOBY-DICK, Page 106

Title: Whaling not respectable? Whaling is imperial! By old English statutory law, the whale is declared "a royal fish".

6.25 inches by 10 inches
colored pencil, ink and spraypaint on found paper
December 15, 2009

MOBY-DICK, Page 105

Title: The whale has no famous author, and whaling no famous chronicler...

8.5 inches by 6.75 inches
crayon on found paper
December 15, 2009

MOBY-DICK, Page 104

Title: Why did the Dutch in DeWitt's time have admirals of their whaling fleets?

7.75 inches by 11 inches
colored pencil and ink on found paper
December 14, 2009

MOBY-DICK, Page 103

Title: ...let me assure ye that many a veteran who has freely marched up to a battery, would quickly recoil at the apparition of the sperm whale's vast tail, fanning into eddies the air over his head.

8.5 inches by 11 inches
acrylic paint, colored pencil and ink on found paper
December 13, 2009

MOBY-DICK, Page 102

Title: ...better is it to perish in that howling infinite, than be ingloriously dashed upon the lee...

7.75 inches by 11 inches
ink on found paper
December 12, 2009

MOBY-DICK, Page 101

Title: Ship and boat diverged; the cold, damp night breeze blew between; a screaming gull flew overhead; the two hulls wildly rolled; we gave three heavy-hearted cheers, and blindly plunged like fate into the lone Atlantic.

8.5 inches by 11 inches
ink on found paper
December 11, 2009

MOBY-DICK, Page 100

Title: As for Peleg himself, he took it more like a philosopher; but for all his philosophy, there was a tear twinkling in his eye, when the lantern came too near.

8.25 inches by 11 inches
acrylic paint, ink and spraypaint on found paper
December 10, 2009

MOBY-DICK, Page 099

Title: That was my first kick.

8.25 inches by 11 inches
colored pencil and marker on found paper
December 10, 2009

MOBY-DICK, Page 098

Title: Meantime, overseeing the other part of the ship, Captain Peleg ripped and swore astern in the most frightful manner.

11 inches by 7.25 inches
colored pencil, ink and marker on found paper
December 9, 2009

MOBY-DICK, Page 097

Title: It was now clear sunrise.

11 inches by 7.75 inches
ink on found paper
December 8, 2009

MOBY-DICK, Page 096

Title: "Face!" said I, "call that his face?"

8.5 inches by 10.5 inches
colored pencil and marker on found paper
December 7, 2009

MOBY-DICK, Page 095

Title: Seeing a light, we went down, and found only an old rigger there, wrapped in a tattered pea-jacket. He was thrown at whole length upon two chests, his face downwards and inclosed in his folded arms. The profoundest slumber slept upon him.

10.5 inches by 8.25 inches
ballpoint pen on found paper
December 6, 2009

MOBY-DICK, Page 094

Title: It was nearly six o'clock, but only grey imperfect misty dawn, when we drew nigh the wharf.

8 inches by 11 inches
colored pencil on found paper
December 5, 2009

MOBY-DICK, Page 093

Title: And like a sister of charity did this charitable Aunt Charity bustle about hither and thither, ready to turn her hand and heart to anything that promised to yield safety, comfort, and consolation to all on board a ship in which her beloved brother Bildad was concerned...

8 inches by 11 inches
crayon, ink and marker on found paper
December 2, 2009

MOBY-DICK, Page 092

Title: ...and the men employed in the hold and on the rigging were working till long after night-fall.

11 inches by 7.75 inches
acrylic paint, ink and marker on found paper
November 29, 2009

MOBY-DICK, Page 091

Title: But we had not gone perhaps above a hundred yards, when chancing to turn a corner, and looking back as I did so, who should be seen but Elijah following us, though at a distance.

7.75 inches by 11 inches
ink and marker on found paper
November 29, 2009