When Less Is More
filed in Creativity on Nov.09, 2011
The Bad Influence - artwork by Duncan Long
One of the pictures (which I posted for Halloween in the previous blog entry) caught the eye of designer David Grasekamp who asked to use it as “Mephisto” in newsletter advertising an upcoming lecture/exhibition about form in art — and which would include a showing of the 1926 German movie “Faust – Eine deutsche Volkssage.” (Faust – A German Folk Tale). I was glad to see the artwork so used and quickly sent him a high resolution version of the illustration..
But like all good stories, there was a twist. It turned out that the picture is rather powerful, and also quite unlike anything that appeared in the film. So there was fear within the committee in charge of producing the material advertising the lecture/movie showing that those coming to the presentation might be a bit put out that what appeared to be promised with my illustration didn’t show up in the presentation or movie.
Grasekamp devised a rather elegant (albeit surprising) solution shown below, by cropping the face from the picture. Here’s the outcome:
Also: The web page advertising the event.
Surprise with how the illustration was modified?
You bet.
But I have to admit it was a very innovative use of an illustration. And that’s what keeps art interesting.
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When not busily painting terrifying illustrations for horror stories, Duncan Long works to create the book cover artwork for a variety of genres from science fiction, to mysteries, fantasy. And, yes, a few horror novels as well. See more of his book illustrations at Duncan’s Book Cover Artwork Portfolio
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November 10th, 2011 on 3:00 pm
You create such amazing artwork. I love this illustration, though have to say that the layout did it no justice.
November 11th, 2011 on 3:25 am
Nice illustration – though to be honest, I think they sort of butchered your work. The original is so powerful and the crop turns it into just a hill. I suppose great illustrators have to suffer such things from time to time.
I must say that you have build such a fantastic site and filled it with unbelievable artwork and illustrations. I stumbled across a link to your pages in Yahoo and now have spent almost an hour exploring your beatufiul artwork. Thanks for sharing.
November 11th, 2011 on 5:28 am
Thanks for providing this article and showing the illustrations. I think you are correct in saying that less can be more when it comes to books and their covers. Nice artwork, too.
November 12th, 2011 on 9:18 am
Interesting transformation. I never would have thought the two were one and the same picture – or at least a part of the original illustration. Fantastic artwork.