HOME | DD

dolfinguy [2015-06-08 06:25:04 +0000 UTC]

Hi.

I'm really loving your take on "Moby Dick", and I'm very interested in seeing where you go with it. As you will see when you look at my art, I've done my share of portraits of Moby Dick, the whale, as well as numerous other drawings of sperm whales in general. In fact, I'm somewhat of an expert on sperm whale anatomy and behavior, and I would very much like to help you with that part of your illustrations (I just sent you a friend request on FB).

I've yet to see a comic book adaption of the story that I really liked (yes, I know that you're not doing a comic book, but that seems to be your background and basic illustration style). The one that Marvel did a few years back was so bad it was laughable; the whales looked more like sea serpents, and I wished the artist had done at least some research on what a whaling ship looked like. His version of the Pequod looked like a child's bathtub toy. By far the best adaption is still the old Classics Illustrated version from the 1950s. And yes, I've seen all the film and TV adaptions of the story, as well as most of the book illustrations that have been done over the years. Rockwell Kent still remains my favorite, but I also really like a children's adaption that was done by Candlewick Press a few years back, adapted by Jan Needle and illustrated by Patrick Benson (www.amazon.com/Moby-Dick-Candl… ). BTW, I've yet to see any adaption or illustration of the title character that has even attempted to include his crooked jaw, or really show his wrinkled brow (The John Huston/Gregory Peck film version did try to show the wrinkled brow, sorta, and at least they had the 3 holes punctured in his starboard fluke, but no crooked jaw).

I really appreciate how much research you're doing on all the little details for each drawing, such as the photos of the ships and the buildings and all that. It's the same type of thing that I would do, and it seems that very few illustrators are willing to go to that much trouble these days. In my desire to make sure that my own drawings and paintings of Moby Dick were accurate to the book, I actually went through the novel page-by-page, and copied down every single reference to his appearance and behavior. I've also done a ton of study on 19th Century Yankee whaling, and I own a couple of hard-to-find books on the subject that you might want to look for. I've also been collecting all sorts of reference material/photos from all over the Internet on Moby Dick, Yankee Whaling and sperm whales, for almost 15 years, that I can send your way at your request (did you know that @ 20 years ago, Dreamworks Animation was considering doing an animated film telling the story from the whale's point-of-view, and even gone as far as commissioning a series of color comps for key scenes before shelving the project?).

So, if you like what you see of my work, and wouldn't mind my help on the whale part, please get back to me. Thanks.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0