My project for course: Graphic Experimentation: From Concept to Illustration

The assignment was to illustrate a text using both symbols from the actual written piece, and a personal response. We are trying to create something that serves as a editorial, commercial product but becomes a work of art in its own right.

I chose a chapter from Le Grand Meaulnes (in English: The Wanderer) by Alain Fournier, published in 1913. The story is of the adventures of an adolescent named Meaulnes who one night gets lost while in a horse cart and discovers a crumbling manor house deep in the forest where an amazing party is being held with mostly children in attendance. It is glorious and magical and while there he falls in love with a young woman. After leaving and going back to the school from which he had run off, he can not find his way back. The chapter I chose. In Search of the Lost Trail, has an incomplete map as a central image.

The narrator of the story is a classmate named François who slightly handicapped with a bad leg. Meaulnes confides his discovery to François and François adopts this adventure somewhat as his own since his own life is very mundane.

The story to me is about the longing of Meaulnes to find and relive this one magical night and for the longing of François to have an adventure like his friend. Much more occurs during the book, which has a rather tragic ending. No one really finds what they want, although they become tantalizingly close to doing so. No one quite connects with anyone else as they each live within their own dreams and fantasies.

My piece is made like a puzzle, to express the disconnection of the characters with one another. François, the narrator is on a separate piece of paper in black and white as he is not really part of the colorful tale, although he tells it. Meaulnes invites him into the tale and where he touches Meaulnes, François has some color.

For the imagery I used photo transfer and mono printing, two techniques I was happy to explore and I used collage, painting and drawing which were more in my comfort zone.