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

MOBY-DICK, Page 535

Title: ...the White Whale churning himself into furious speed, almost in an instant as it were, rushing among the boats with open jaws, and a lashing tail, offered appalling battle on every side; and heedless of the irons darted at him from every boat, seemed only intent on annihilating each separate plank of which those boats were made.

7.5 inches by 10.5 inches
acrylic paint and ink on found paper
January 11, 2011