Sunday 22 July 2007

Illustration Friday (poem). "Tyger Tyger".


I've always had a hard time appreciating poetry (unless it's Roald Dahl, Spike Milligan or Edward Gorey), but that said I do like William Blake's "The Tyger":

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

and so on...

(& I don't think I've gained "an immortal hand" or eye as a result of working on the image...!) :)

I did another version of this piece a few years back and wanted a fresh look at things now that my working style has changed. With IF having the topic "poem" this seemed as good a time as any to give it another go. You can see the earlier version and sketches for it on my website.

12 comments:

Sorrel Sparks said...

Lovely colour and texture, good choice of poem too! Love it.

Unknown said...

AWESOME design, love the attitude of the tiger!

Anonymous said...

Great work as usual Matt.
Nice texture and design on the Tiger. I like the original one too.

I was thinking of using this poem for IF this week but I think you've nailed it with both.

Nicole Florian said...

Beautriful! Very expressive!

Kevin M. Scarbrough said...

While I like them both very much, I do prefer the version in your blog than the original version. I'm a sucker for over simplified backgrounds, I feel it pushes the foreground subject matter so much further.

janie said...

cool grumpy tiger
the poem reminds me of this one
spider,spider on the wall
have you any friends at all?
let me pat you on the head
got you spider now you're dead!

Eli said...

Great coloring and expression, and I like the back feet and tail especially!

pRiyA said...

beautiful illustration for blake's poem. love the way you've contrasted the ochre tiger against the grey trees and the black night.

imwithsully said...

Unexpected textures and colors. But they work so well!

Pickledog said...

Fierce tiger! I like the way you over-lapped the light grey bars on top of the tiger.

Jared Chapman said...

Beautiful!

Anonymous said...

Another gorgeous piece, Matt. The texture is amazing (that would be the tissue paper?). I'm with you on poetry too, but yoou just can't knock Blake. I gotta say, I prefer this to the earlier version; it's the quiet intensity.