The Judge's House by Bram Stoker
The story I was given was called The Judge’s House. I found it a bit hard to follow for the first half but I kind of got the idea of what was happening near the end of the story. From what I could tell, the man staying in the house noticed the painting of the judge who used to live there had the exact same eyes as this specific big rat. There was a lot of mentioning about a hanging rope around but I couldn’t really picture where it was meant to be. For the first few ideas I had I sort of messed up and forgot that this was meant to be a literal illustration, so I had to look more into the text for more fitting ideas.
19th Century Houses -
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Inside book design
I ended up finding a part of the text that described the portrait in the room and the resemblance to the rat. I still can’t really figure out the deal with where the noose is meant to be located, if it’s on the ground, cut off or still on the ceiling? But I did have a couple more ideas that I tried doing based right off the text given.
19th Century Judges -
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Artist References
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Lighting references
The reason i started looking into lighting references for this was so i could have a better go at shading which features on the face so it kept the eyes being the main focus.
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What my goal was for this piece was to base it around the time of the story where we get a description of the Judge's portrait. As there was an emphasis on his red eyes I tried my best to capture them while keeping a unsettling vibe to it. One of the reasons why i chose this thumbnail was I had the idea to use a picture of real eyes to replace the judges. In the sketch it looked pretty cool it i ended up preferring the way i drew them in the end. I did still make another version with the idea to see if it still worked but I think it lost some of the horror to it.
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Alternative version with real eyes in the portrait
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Week 2 feedback -
After my feedback I went back to the audio to have another listen. I also went and found the pdf of the story to follow along so I could understand it better which thankfully helped. What The Judges House is about is a young math scholar wanting to find a quiet place to work on his studies in solitude. He finds out about an abandoned house that was owned and lived in by a judge, so he goes to live there for a short time. When he first moved in he’s warned by a couple individuals about the superstitions that go on there, how it drives people mad. Malcolm (the student) doesn’t listen to them and continues to live there.
After a couple days he starts spotting that the place is infested with rats and one particular rat, that’s much larger than the others, keeps pestering him. Back when he was warned by the people about the house they mentioned the history of the judge and how he used to sentence people to death via hanging. They mention the rope he used is kept in his room as a part of a warning bell. Malcolm gets quite interested in this and starts looking into the judge and his victims while the large rat continues to annoy him. One thing he finds is a portrait of the judge, sitting on a chair by the fireplace with the noose hanging in the background. There’s a lot of attention to his eyes and when he comes across the rat another night he goes to try and kill it using random objects such as books. However he’s stopped to realise the eyes of the rat are a spitting image to the eyes of the judge who when he looks back at the portrait, is completely gone from the painting. When he realises this he spots between him and the door to the room, the ghost of the judge standing there. He holds a noose in his hand in a teasing way. This leads to the student becoming so deep into madness of these superstitions he’s found the next day hanging from the ceiling.
After a couple days he starts spotting that the place is infested with rats and one particular rat, that’s much larger than the others, keeps pestering him. Back when he was warned by the people about the house they mentioned the history of the judge and how he used to sentence people to death via hanging. They mention the rope he used is kept in his room as a part of a warning bell. Malcolm gets quite interested in this and starts looking into the judge and his victims while the large rat continues to annoy him. One thing he finds is a portrait of the judge, sitting on a chair by the fireplace with the noose hanging in the background. There’s a lot of attention to his eyes and when he comes across the rat another night he goes to try and kill it using random objects such as books. However he’s stopped to realise the eyes of the rat are a spitting image to the eyes of the judge who when he looks back at the portrait, is completely gone from the painting. When he realises this he spots between him and the door to the room, the ghost of the judge standing there. He holds a noose in his hand in a teasing way. This leads to the student becoming so deep into madness of these superstitions he’s found the next day hanging from the ceiling.
Chapter heading design
Below are some links to sites that I used to help understand the story more clearly.
Bram Stoker's The Judge's House: A Detailed Summary ...
https://www.oldstyletales.com › single-post › 2018/10/17
Short Story Analysis: “The Judge's House” by Bram Stoker
https://thewritingpost.com › 2022/10/19 › short-story-a...
Tuesday Terror! The Judge's House by Bram Stoker
https://fictionfanblog.wordpress.com › 2020/03/31 › tu...
I really liked the idea of having the rat sitting inside the noose, so I looked for some drawings online that seem to be victorian style drawings of rats for reference on how to shade it. Also looked for some references of ropes for the noose.
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I think i could of spent some extra time on this section, but I was pretty adamant on what I had in mind.
The Man in Black book cover
At first I didn’t have many ideas for the cover, probably a silhouette of a man or some form of figure around the cover. However I ended up going for the idea to do an old radio for the cover after seeing some of the works from everyone else. Thought I’d also keep it pretty simple and focus a bit more on the design of the border of the cover. A lot of old books tend to have these long, vine like patterns around the cover so I attempted to do a similar thing.
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I looked into many victorian book covers for reference, as well as for ideas on colour choices.
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Personally, i think this project could of gone a lot more better if I had the chance to do more work during the second week. It was also my fault that I couldn't wrap my head around the story quick enough, which lead to wrong ideas and not a good understanding of what I was even meaning to do. While on the last week i managed to get into the flow, I definitely fumbled at the start with so many problems that showed up.
However, I am pleased with what i achieved and i'm happy with the horror like feeling i think i managed to get into the finished artworks.
However, I am pleased with what i achieved and i'm happy with the horror like feeling i think i managed to get into the finished artworks.
