Bardcamp cover art: Edward II

[helenic]

This year at bardcamp one of the heroic organising team had the idea of publishing standardised scripts for everyone to use. This neatly avoided the stress of people having different editions/page numbers/characters speaking particular lines, as well as providing highlightable/annotatable scripts for the people who don't like writing in books, and functioning as handy mementos (as well as lovely editions of any plays anyone didn't have, which is most people with the rarer ones we do). We even had a professional-quality academic editor to produce new editions of all the scripts in the form of roz_mcclure, and although it was a lot of work for everyone who helped with printing, collating, proof-reading, organising, distributing and everything else that was needed, in my opinion it was totally worth it.

The cover of every script included an artwork produced by various bardcamp volunteers. Which play we got to illustrate was decided by the_alchemist, who leads bardcamp with a finely-tuned benevolent dictatorship, and who was very good about giving people plays to illustrate which they had big parts in or were otherwise likely to be familiar with. Since I was playing Gaveston in Marlowe's Edward II, I was given that play to illustrate. Here's what I came up with:

Edward II
15" x 15" (original painting size); 10cm x 10cm (eventual print size at 300dpi)
oil on primed paper/digital

My reading of the play was basically as being Queer as Folk - petty, cynical scene bitchery between lots of fucked up characters, but even though none of them are entirely sympathetic the passion they have for each other is very real, and they're doing the best they can of it in a messed-up, hostile world. If I was staging it I'd be tempted to set it all in filthy kitchens and bathrooms with syringes on the floor, to reflect the low-brow, gritty realism of the language. Stuart Alan Jones was my prime role-model for Gaveston, although Gaveston was even more tense and even more unpleasant. Anyway, this is meant to be the tragic young king which Gaveston is totally boning. It's sort of loosely based on a screencap of Justin from the US Queer as Folk, the existence of which I lament, but I couldn't find any nude promo shots of Nathan.

And while I'm posting this, here are a couple of sketches I did before I worked out what I wanted to do:

I actually started a watercolour version of the second one but it wasn't going well, so I stopped and started again. I definitely prefer the version I ended up with.

Comments

[thene]

Nice Captain Carrot tatt/birthmark on that last one. I really like the finished painting here - definitely a better composition idea than the two sketches.

[avaragariel.livejournal.com]

I love the painting! The lighting is awesome :)

[aiwendel.livejournal.com]

seconded!

[yiskah.livejournal.com]

I LOVE that painting. LOVE.

[biascut.livejournal.com]

Thirded and fourth from Leeds! The light's just astonishing.

(but - what's going on with his bottom?)

[denari.livejournal.com]

I really like the lighting/shading on the first one, however I feel compelled to point out that it looks like he's doing a poo. :P
I hope that doesn't cause offense!

[mirabehn.livejournal.com]

Love. :-)

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

Guh. That painting is amazing.

[yvesilena.livejournal.com]

I didn't realise you painted that! It's fantastic.