The Body by Stephen King, Illustrated
Art Instructor: Sean Mccabe
Institution: Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University
My goal for this project was to create a balance or in someways struggle between innocence and darkness as portrayed through the novels themes. With the use of traditional graphic design and digital technics such as Adobe Photoshop, along with black and white film photography and hand done sketches in Procreate, I created collage work to explore the abstract form of this story. I wanted to look beyond the literal descriptions from the text to create or more emotional and deeper context for the characters and plot.
The Body, by Stephen King, is a short novel about a young group of boys, going on adventure together, in the 1960’s Maine. While in some ways it is a coming of age story, in others it is a huanting story of young boys having to become men. As they find a dead body they loose their innocence.
ENJOY THE NOVEL!
Illustration Process
I started with rereading parts of the book to further my knowledge on how King goes about the plot and character development. Through this process, I found that King designated separate chapters or sections to explore each character in detail. I want this to continue throughout the illustration spreads. I assigned each of the main characters their own color of overlay sketches to visually differentiate their scenes in a more unique way, enhancing each of their identities and roles in the story.
The sketches and illustrations were hand drawn through Procreate. Although the drawings are abstract, dramatic and in someways dark or sad, they are meant to bring a sense of innocence to the imagery, representing the boys’ youth through out the story. The illustrations are meant to feel messy and rough, with the use of bright colors, giving the sense that they might have been scribbled down or included by the main characters themselves.
Photography
Almost all of the film photography, I took using back and white film. I captured photos around my local area, trying to reflect the darker side of this novel, including the environments and other aspects of the plot. I decided on using black and white film as way to refer back to somber and nostalgic tone of the novel. The photos are overlayed and collaged together depending on the scene and the drawings they interact with. The use of black and white film in contrast with bright messing sketches was done with intention of emphasizing the contrasting themes of the book, refering back to the idea that the story, while coming of age and loss of innocence, is also dark and sad.
Conclusion
This illustrated version of The Body, by Stephen King is meant not only reflect on his writing but express the story in a new light. With the combination of different design technics, drawing and photography, this project pushes past the common way of story telling using image making. I wanted to use a combination of various mediums and literature with to create a more abstract and meaningful way of telling this story.
Flat Spreads:
