Angela Carter's Folio Society - Puss In Boots

The Folio Society need one book cover and three illustrations for Angela Carter's : The Bloody Chamber short stories book.  Angela Carter has very strong themes and tones in her stories and they certainly need to be taken into consideration when creating illustrations that fit into her style and tone.

Then it was time too analyse the story:

From analysing the story these are some rough sketchy designs from my journal:

 I have decided upon the design showing Puss' boots and the dead mouse.  This is because this design suits Puss' show-off personality well and i like the idea of the cat stood dominant over the mouse, showing dominance and creating tension.

This then leads to idea refinement of composition:

After deciding this was certainly my design idea and sketching it out in ink, it was time to look at elements of my design:

Once I had analysed an array of elements and chosen which was most historically fitting with the era / period of the setting of the story, as well as which would fit with the  theme well it was time to create my painting.  I used the cavalry officers boots, dead mouse and cats fur as reference.

Then I found a beautiful napkin that looked much like a elegant and beautiful wallpaper.  Its not too bold or brash but would compliment the image and background.  The house they are in is of a wealthy woman and this pattern would perfectly illuminate this:

Then I decided to cut out copies of both images and arrange them together to see what they look like combined:

I was very pleased with this so I took both my acrylic painting and napkin background into Photoshop and mereged them together:

P. 86

"SIGNOR FURIOSO, THE LIVING DEATH OF RATS"

I have used natural colours as it ages the image and gives the idea that it was set in history (which it was).  Also the carpet is meant to be a blood red colour to emphasis the death of the mouse.  Just seeing Puss' boots and part of his fur is important in creating intrigue and not giving too much away.  He's dominant over the mouse in a cocky pose and I wish to continue this theme in my other illustrations for Angela Carter as it creates tension and intrigue which is what her short stories aim to do.