Final Major Project

After deciding on the text for my project and reading through it completely, it turned out that the novel focuses on the events of the supernatural apocalypse only briefly (the last few pages of the whole book) and in a general manner, instead placing emphasis on the overarching theme and consequential plot twist (God is dead, an unstoppable force has been unleashed). Although this initially appeared to undermine my reasons for having chosen the book to base the project on in the first place, I realised that it in fact just meant I had creative freedom with which to depict the dramatic events. Part of my reason for choosing this particular book over others was its unique premise, and the fact that unlike many, this one had not yet had a film-adaptation through which people's perceptions are set- another factor aiding with the freedom to take it in any direction. As a result of a lack of directly-relevant and descriptive text pertaining to how the events unfolded, I decided to approach the project looking at the book as more of a starting point and source of inspiration for a concept, rather than attempting to 'illustrate' it as such.

For my initial work having read the book, I intended on focusing on character design in terms of the demons and creatures of Hell unleashed in the story, and basing the project on that for the most part. To work with I compiled a list of demons mentioned in the book, and set to work on sketches. A classification of demons from the 16th century associated seven primary demons with each of the Seven Deadly Sins, an idea that inspired me to create a character for each. Because each demon has a human form, I felt the idea of each possessing a mask representing the sin would be interesting. This is shown in the first photo:

Each drawing is a basic concept for the demon Belphegor to which 'Sloth' is attributed, a sin characterised by spiritual or emotional apathy, laziness and the wasting of God-given abilities. To represent this idea I experimented with a lack of senses, aesthetics implying self-imposed deprivation. The second from the right on the bottom row was inspired by feline eyes, as cats are typically lazy and apathetic in nature, with eyes that lack emotion. The intention was to create pages like this for each sin, then develop select ideas from there, though after feedback I decided to take things in another direction.

I started instead drawing interpretations of characters mentioned. I was advised to think more about the intended overall aesthetic (less visually-contextless designs) and illustrate accordingly, so I changed from this also in a final move away from focus on character and on to environment.