MOBY-DICK, Page 552

It's funny. I looked back at the very first entry for this blog, the illustration for the first page, and in my innocent exuberance I had written "Because I honestly consider Moby-Dick to be the greatest novel ever written, I am now going to create one illustration for every single one of the 552 pages in the Signet Classic paperback editiion." That made me smile. Especially the "I am now going to..." as if it were a simple card trick or a demonstration on how to make a pie crust. I had no idea where this would end up taking me.

And now, here, 543 days later, I have taken you from the first line of the book to the very last. Here is the final illustration for page 552. I think you will see, after looking back at that first page, that this one is as it had to be...

Title: On the second day, a sail drew near, nearer, and picked me up at last. It was the devious-cruising Rachel, that in her retracing search after her missing children, only found another orphan.

8.5 inches by 11 inches
colored pencil and ink on found paper
January 29, 2011

MOBY-DICK, Page 551

Title: ...then all collapsed, and the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago.

12 inches by 8.25 inches
ink on watercolor paper
January 24, 2011

MOBY-DICK, Page 550

Title: "Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee. Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool! and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale! Thus, I give up the spear!"

8.25 inches by 12 inches
ink on watercolor paper
January 23, 2011

MOBY-DICK, Page 549 (second, final version)

Title: Retribution, swift vengeance, eternal malice were in his whole aspect, and spite of all that mortal man could do, the solid white buttress of his forehead smote the ship's starboard bow, till men and timbers reeled. Some fell flat upon their faces. Like dislodged trucks, the heads of the harpooneers aloft shook on their bull-like necks. Through the breach, they heard the waters pour, as mountain torrents down a flume.

"The ship! The hearse! - the second hearse!" cried Ahab from the boat; "its wood could only be American!"

15.5 inches by 10.75 inches
acrylic paint and ink on found paper
January 23, 2011

MOBY-DICK, Page 549 (first, unused version)

(Simply put, I had two ideas for this piece and I just couldn't decide. So I made both of them on the same afternoon thinking it would be easier to choose which one to use once they were both complete. I ended up liking them both quite a bit, but the second one in the post above seemed just a bit more cinematic, violent, and terrifying so I went with that. Still, I like each of these quite a bit.)

Title: Retribution, swift vengeance, eternal malice were in his whole aspect, and spite of all that mortal man could do, the solid white buttress of his forehead smote the ship's starboard bow, till men and timbers reeled. Some fell flat upon their faces. Like dislodged trucks, the heads of the harpooneers aloft shook on their bull-like necks. Through the breach, they heard the waters pour, as mountain torrents down a flume.

"The ship! The hearse! - the second hearse!" cried Ahab from the boat; "its wood could only be American!"

10.5 inches by 7.5 inches
acrylic paint on found paper
January 23, 2011

MOBY-DICK, Page 548

Title: Hearing the tremendous rush of the sea-crashing boat, the whale wheeled round to present his blank forehead at bay; but in that evolution, catching sight of the nearing black hull of the ship; seemingly seeing in it the source of all his persecutions; bethinking it - it may be - a larger and nobler foe; of a sudden, he bore down upon its advancing prow, smiting his jaws amid fiery showers of foam.

12 inches by 8.25 inches
ink on watercolor paper
January 22, 2011

MOBY-DICK, Page 547

Title: At length as the craft was cast to one side, and ran ranging along with the White Whale's flank, he seemed strangely oblivious of its advance...

15.5 inches by 10.75 inches
acrylic paint and ink on found paper
January 21, 2011

MOBY-DICK, Page 546

Title: ...Moby Dick was now again steadily swimming forward...

12 inches by 8.25 inches
acrylic paint on watercolor paper
January 20, 2011

MOBY-DICK, Page 545

Title: While Daggoo and Queequeg were stopping the strained planks; and as the whale swimming out from them, turned, and showed one entire flank as he shot by them again; at that moment a quick cry went up. Lashed round and round to the fish's back; pinioned in the turns upon turns in which, during the past night, the whale had reeled the involutions of the lines around him, the half torn body of the Parsee was seen; his sable raiment frayed to shreds; his distended eyes turned full upon old Ahab.

15.5 inches by 10.75 inches
acrylic paint on found paper
January 19, 2011

MOBY-DICK, Page 544

Title: "For when three days flow together in one continuous intense pursuit; be sure the first is the morning, the second the noon, and the third the evening and the end of that thing - be that end what it may."

14.5 inches by 10.75 inches
acrylic paint on found paper
January 18, 2011

MOBY-DICK, Page 543

Title: Their hands met; their eyes fastened; Starbuck's tears the glue.

"Oh, my captain, my captain! - noble heart - go not - go not! - see, it's a brave man that weeps; how great the agony of the persuasion then!"

6.25 inches by 10 inches
acrylic paint and ink on found paper
January 17, 2011

MOBY-DICK, Page 542

Title: "What's this? - green? aye, tiny mosses in these warped cracks. No such green weather stains on Ahab's head! There's the difference now between man's old age and matter's. But aye, old mast, we both grow old together; sound in our hulls, though, are we not, my ship?"

8.25 inches by 12 inches
ink, marker and watercolor on watercolor paper
January 17, 2011

MOBY-DICK, Page 541 (second, final version)

Title: "Aye, he's chasing me now; not I, him - that's bad..."

7 inches by 7 inches
acrylic paint and ink on Bristol board
January 20, 2011

MOBY-DICK, Page 541 (first, unused version)

(This was my first attempt at the image. Obviously thinking about the ouroboros as well as E.R. Eddison's amazing fantasy novel The Worm Ouroboros. I felt that this attempt was just a bit too static and perhaps even a little lifeless. I'm not absolutely thrilled with my second attempt, in the post above this, but I do feel it has a bit more life and a bit more horror in it so I am going with that one.)

Title: "Aye, he's chasing me now; not I, him - that's bad..."

7 inches by 7 inches
ink and marker on Bristol board
January 17, 2011

MOBY-DICK, Page 540 (second, final version)

Title: ...while still as on the night before, slouched Ahab stood fixed within his scuttle; his hid, heliotrope glance anticipatingly gone backward on its dial; sat due eastward for the earliest sun.

8 inches by 6 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
Jannuary 24, 2011

MOBY-DICK, Page 540 (first, unused version)

Something about this image just wasn't sitting right with me. For one thing, I was unhappy with the three little skulls near the bottom. Also, the sun looked more like Jupiter to me, which bugged me. Finally, I just couldn't get that word "heliotrope" out of my mind. So, days later, in a rather furious fit of sketching, I redrew this thing completely. And I'm much happier with the second version, in the post above...)

Title: ...while still as on the night before, slouched Ahab stood fixed within his scuttle; his hid, heliotrope glance anticipatingly gone backward on its dial; sat due eastward for the earliest sun.

7.75 inches by 10.75 inches
acrylic paint on found paper
Jannuary 16, 2011

MOBY-DICK, Page 539

Title: "Ahab is for ever Ahab, man."

7 inches by 8.5 inches
ink on Bristol board
January 15, 2011

MOBY-DICK, Page 538

Title: "Great God! but for one single instant show thyself," cried Starbuck; "never, never wilt thou capture him, old man - In Jesus' name no more of this, that's worse than devil's madness. Two days chased; twice stove to splinters; thy very leg once more snatched from under thee; thy evil shadow gone - all good angels mobbing thee with warnings: - what more wouldst thou have? - Shall we keep chasing this murderous fish till he swamps the last man? Shall we be dragged by him to the bottom of the sea? Shall we be towed by him to the infernal world? Oh, oh, - Impiety and blasphemy to hunt him more!"

12 inches by 8.25 inches
acrylic paint and ink on watercolor paper
January 15, 2011

MOBY-DICK, Page 537

Title: But soon, as if satisfied that his work for that time was done, he pushed his pleated forehead through the ocean, and trailing after him the intertangled lines, continued his leeward way at a traveller's methodic pace.

7.25 inches by 10.25 inches
acrylic paint on found paper
January 13, 2011

MOBY-DICK, Page 536

Title: That instant, the White Whale made a sudden rush among the remaining tangles of the other lines; by so doing, irresistibly dragged the more involved boats of Stubb and Flask towards his flukes; dashed them together like two rolling husks on a surf-beaten beach, and then, diving down into the sea, disappeared in a boiling maelstrom...

10.75 inches by 15.5 inches
acrylic paint on found paper
January 13, 2011