Friday, August 6, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 334 (second, final version)

Title: To scan the lines of his face, or feel the bumps on the head of this Leviathan; this is a thing which no Physiognomist or Phrenologist has as yet undertaken.

10.75 inches by 7.75 inches
charcoal, ink and marker on found paper
August 5, 2010

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4 comments:

  1. patrickAugust 6, 2010 at 9:34 AM

    very cool. i think i like this one better for this line (though the little death heads in version one are pretty sweet...). the detail that really makes this piece is, i think, the teeth. i don't think the show up in a lot of the depictions of sperm whales, but here they look razor sharp and vicious. it makes the whole proposal of feeling the whale's head for the sake of phrenology sound very menacing and foreboding.

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  2. Matt KishAugust 6, 2010 at 11:22 AM

    Thank you Patrick, especially for the comments about the flying skulls. I am enormously fond of skulls and a bit disappointed that they won't be in the finished piece, but I do feel the second illustration is more effective.

    And so true about the teeth! Even I miss quite a few opportunities to add them in, or I distort them to such an extent that they are almost surreal, but I wanted a fairly accurate sperm whale head here and was pleased at the opportunity to include those small but lethal teeth.

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  3. *August 25, 2010 at 11:49 PM

    I like this one a lot, the juxtaposition of whale and man.

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  4. Matt KishAugust 26, 2010 at 12:10 PM

    Thank you Terresa, I am so much happier with this piece on every level. The juxtaposition, the composition, the balance, the design...it's one of my favorites.

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