Horror book cover illustration artwork by book artist and illustrator Duncan Long.

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:

Faust Movie Poster - Illustration by Duncan Long

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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