Flashlight, Knife and Flowered Crown (Part 3)

The third dark Fae illustration is finished and with it my six-month journey living in Sarah Avery's serialized story Flashlight, Knife and Flowered Crown, currently published in issue #136 of Space and Time Magazine.

How fun it was to have this story fluttering around my brain. Dark faeries, dark deeds, and heroic and intelligent characters. Part 3 leads us deep into the Fae barrow where our heroine's courageous rescue attempt comes to it's dramatic conclusion.

I'd been looking forward to this part of the story. Early on I knew I wanted the faerie world to have some hint of art deco/art nouveau and that I was going to try throwing a little Harry Clarke inspired patters at it.

In some ways sketching is like auditioning actors.
 I love the sass of this fella but he just wasn't the Lump I was looking for.

However, it was a rough start. I was disappointed with my initial thumbnails but things started to fall in place when the background took form and, thankfully, the detailing pulled it through. I'd been looking at  Bernie Wrightson art lately and reading Junji Ito and I can see a little of each sneaking unannounced into parts of the illustration.

We're closer to the main characters now and it allows for more detail and the shading of the human figures to contrast more obviously with the lack of shading in the Fae. Perspective and dimension are deliberately thrown a little askew to give the barrow a slight disorienting feel.

Over the last year, as the three illustrations have been published, I've posted to Twitter and Facebook photos of the story's title page against a colorful patterned background. That patterned background was my bed sheets (I just sat the magazine on the bed). But from the beginning I knew that sort of flowered, curly textile was where I wanted to head. Here in the last illustration I was able to literally incorporate that pattern into, again, the background.

Sometimes I wonder if it's better to tell your secrets or to let someone discover them for themselves. Throughout the process of illustrating the three parts of this story I couldn't shake the feeling that these Fae characters were somehow connected to the history of the Imlen Brat, another universe written by Sarah Avery. I mean with a magic transporting mound that can appear anywhere (and perhaps any-when), who's to say? But for the life of me, I couldn't point the viewer to any particular clues across the illustrations, even if they were in fact there. Aren't the shape of the mistress's wings pretty and somehow familiar?

In the end, I think it's a strong finish to a strong story.