The mentioned necropolis is one of the most characteristic places in Małopolska. The Rakowicki Cemetery also has great artistic value. Among the alleys you can find many original sculptures, figures and tombstones. The aim of the work is to popularize the Rakowicki Cemetery as a source of inspiration and extraordinary historical heritage, and also indirectly save works of tombstone art, in particular the figures depicted, and show them in a slightly different light.
I started working on the project with a walk around the Rakowicki Cemetery, during which I photographed 54 grave sculptures that caught my attention. Initially, the key to finding interesting works was the artistic past of those buried. However, it soon turned out that a large number of such graves (for example the tomb of Jan Matejko) are impressive monuments, but without any characteristic figures. After making a selection based on guidebooks to Rakowice, tourist websites and opinions of Internet users, I have listed 16 tombstones. It was a number large enough to compose a graphic novel, and also appropriate so as not to discourage the reader with an excess of news. The next step was to find information about the people buried there and briefly describe their history. Depending on the available sources, the length of each text ranges from 100 to 250 words. We are led through the novel by a fictional narrator, the spirit of the place, telling stories from the lives of the dead, sometimes introducing a digression about the appearance of the cemetery figure itself.
Each person described in the book has two spreads - one introductory and one about. The characters are not arranged alphabetically, but according to the months in which the person died. This creates a closed annual cycle starting in January, which can be seen from the flowers on the introduction pages, selected according to the season. Their presence relates mainly to the tradition of laying wreaths on graves.
Experimenting with the format usually oscillated around the aspect ratio of 4: 5, and so was the case in the final version - the page size is 16 by 20 cm. The initial proposal of the layout assumed the text "flowing" along with the image - it was illegible, in addition, it began to give the impression of a comic book and with ornate, full-page illustrations it looked too complicated. The solution turned out to be a flag composition with a variable arrangement of pages and a variation of the orientation of the illustration to draw the reader's attention - for example, by placing every third story on a recto page.
The media used while creating the illustrations are mainly watercolor paints, adapted to the subject due to its "smoky" specificity.
