The Bloody Chamber II

"Before he can become a wolf, the lycanthrope strips stark naked. If you spy a naked man among the pines, you must run as if the Devil were after you."

The Company of Wolves

"See! Puss has slaughtered all the rats."

Puss-in-Boots

"I saw a horse and rider galloping at a vertiginous speed along the cause-way..."

The Bloody Chamber

"...that castle, at home neither on the land nor on the water, a mysterious, amphibious place, contravening the materiality of both earth and the waves, with the melancholy of a mermaiden who perches on her rock and waits, endlessly, for a lover who had drowned far away, long ago."

The Bloody Chamber

These are my entries for the recent House of Illustration and Folio Society Competition. The brief was to illustrate 3 selected stories from Angela Carter's Bloody Chamber, which those of you who know me will remember is one of my favourite books. I also illustrated some of the stories for my degree, which I blogged in the past here. So I had to give this brief ago. Unfortunately, although I like the paintings, I don't think they were my best work (I think my previous illustrations represent Carter's stories better), and I don't expect I'll come anywhere in the competition. But I still like them enough to share with you all. I am very excited to see the final book though, with the winning illustrations, when it comes out, because as I've said, I love these stories and I really hope I love the illustrations too so I can add them to my bookshelf!