My book has a cover

For anyone who didn't follow the Tin House Books or Amazon links, and also because it looks fantastic and I wanted to put it right here on the blog, below is the cover to my upcoming art book collecting all 552 of these Moby-Dick illustrations...

My task is complete.

As I write this, it is 9:26 a.m. on Saturday morning, January 29, 2011 and I just finished drawing and scanning the final illustration. I have completed my task. You and I have walked together, from the first page of Moby-Dick to the last. As I expected, I just don't know how to even begin to sort out how I am feeling. What surprises me the most is just how sad I feel. It's really, finally over. I am truly going to miss these characters. Queequeg and Ishmael. Starbuck and Ahab. Even Moby Dick himself. These characters have really become a part of my life, a part of my daily thoughts now, for well over a year. It will be sad not to think of them, not to see them as often as I have.

I am going to miss all of you too. I have enjoyed the comments and the emails and the sharing of thoughts and ideas more than you might ever know. It has really been a pleasure and, even more so, an honor to share this project with you all. You may not know it but every one of you who commented or wrote to me or talked to me about this project became a part of it. This is as much for you all as it is for me, and I have been a lucky man to be able to share this with you.

It will be a strange day today I think. I have to wash up some brushes and give my closet studio a long overdue cleaning and sweeping. Then it will be a pleasant dinner this evening with some good friends, to celebrate the end. Beyond that, I don't know.

This is not the end, not quite yet, for this blog though. There will probably not be daily or twice-daily updates any longer, but there will be many more posts. Updates on the publication of the book, hopefully a gallery show or two, a few more pieces of Moby-Dick inspired art (I've always wanted to a suite of four illustrations of the named whales from Chapter 45: The Affidavit. The whales are Timor Tom who is scarred like an iceberg, New Zealand Jack the terror of the cruisers, Morquan the King of Japan and Don Miguel the Chilian whale marked like an old tortoise), and lots and lots of details about me selling every single illustration from this thing. I do hope you'll continue to visit, to comment now and again, to drop me a line and say hello. It should be an interesting year.

For now though, I am going to let myself feel just a little proud of this. I've looked back often over all of these illustrations and while there are always some I like more than others, I am pleased with them all. I do think I've done something good here.

Thank you, everyone, for your kindness and your companionship. Godspeed.

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