The Picture of Dorian Gray

Speedball ink (brush and nib pen) in sketchbook

Ever since I read it for the first time during my freshman year at Bowdoin, I have been fascinated by Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. I would really love to do a larger scale illustration project about Dorian Gray, so that might be a coming attraction... stay tuned. I'm interested in using some visual saturation of meaningful patterns, like the one on the couch/background here, to demonstrate Dorian's world of excess, and I just love the ideas in the book about artwork and its inner life, the dangers of immortality, and superficial beauty covering something rotten inside. Here's a pretty straightforward picture of Dorian, as I get used to ink and nib pens and stuff. The quote written in the background is from the book, and it says: "You are a wonderful creation. You know more than you think you know, just as you know less than you want to know."