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 444

Title: But will any whaleman believe these stories? No. The whale of to-day is as big as his ancestors in Pliny's time. And if ever I go where Pliny is, I, a whaleman (more than he was), will make bold to tell him so.

7.75 inches by 10.75 inches
ink and marker on found paper
November 11, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 436

Title: The skeleton dimensions I shall now proceed to set down are copied verbatim from my right arm, where I had them tattooed; as in my wild wanderings at that period, there was no other secure way of preserving such valuable statistics.

8.5 inches by 5.5 inches
ballpoint pen on paper
November 5, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 310

Title: So strongly and metaphysically did I conceive of my situation then, that while earnestly watching his motions, I seemed distinctly to perceive that my own individuality was now merged in a joint stock company of two...

8 inches by 12 inches
colored pencil, ink, marker and watercolor on watercolor paper
July 14, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 207

Title: Thus we were weaving and weaving away when I started at a sound so strange, long drawn, and musically wild and unearthly, that the ball of free will dropped from my hand, and I stood gazing up at the clouds...

8.5 inches by 11 inches
ink on found paper
March 21, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 171

Title: I, Ishmael, was one of that crew; my shouts had gone up with the rest; my oath had been welded with theirs; and stronger I shouted, and more did I hammer and clinch my oath, because of the dread in my soul.

5 inches by 8 inches
colored pencil and ink on found paper
February 21, 2010

MOBY-DICK, Page 152

Title: ...but lulled into such an opium-like listlessness of vacant, unconscious reverie is this absent-minded youth by the blending cadence of waves with thoughts, that at last he loses his identity...

4.25 inches by 7 inches
ink on found paper
February 4, 2010

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

MOBY-DICK, Page 084

Title: ...we sallied out to board the Pequod, sauntering along, and picking our teeth with halibut bones.

8.25 inches by 11 inches
colored pencil, ink, marker and pencil on found paper
November 26, 2009

MOBY-DICK, Page 050

Title: ...he pressed his forehead against mine, clasped me round the waist, and said that henceforth we were married...

11 inches by 7.75 inches
ink and marker on found paper
September 25, 2009

MOBY-DICK, Page 001

My friend Tobin Becker recently reminded me of my undying love for Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick, or The Whale.

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 edition. I'l try to do one a day, but we'll see.

Here is the first illustration, from page one, entitled Call me Ishmael.

8.5 inches by 11 inches
colored pencil and ink on found paper
August 5, 2009