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The Whale

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A2/Pigment Ink and Permanent Marker on paper/April-May 2004

This is a photo of the picture I'm most proud of. There's a lot of detail in there -- not all of it will come out because of the limitations of my camera, the fact that it's now behind a glass frame to protect it, and file size. I'll put up a few details from it in the future.

I'm not entirely sure why it's called 'The Whale'. I was thinking a lot of Mark Z Danielewski's 'House Of Leaves' when I was finishing it off, so some of the themes from that have been mixed up in my head and transplanted onto the page. Also, the shape of the main body looks a little bit like a whale to me. It was originally very different -- the large black area that surrounds it contained a face in profile and a checker-board sea when it was first completed, but I blacked them out because they didn't fit very well, and I'm really glad I took that risk. As with all of this type of picture I do, there are quotations and hidden meanings thrown in there liberally -- I always recognise the quotations, but the hidden meanings are often lost to me. Most of the quotes here come from either songs from the anticon music label (sole, why? and doseone) and also from snippets of things that I was thinking while drawing.

I've been told that it looks 'scary' and also 'morbid'. I can see where those opinions have formulated, and some of the areas support them, (the profiled teeth, the tribal faces, and the prolification of skulls in particular), but on the whole it looks the way it does because black ink looks better than blue on white paper. Hopefully you'll like it.
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844x640px 482.79 KB
© 2004 - 2024 grthink
Comments42
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kilifvak's avatar
I think the face in the middle kinda ruins it
If it wasn't for that face it wouldv been really badass