This project was to create an illustrated short story. I chose The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allen Poe, one of my favorite stories. It is a masterwork of horror and imagination, and I wanted to put my own twist on it. There have been countless adaptations of it so it was a challenge to create a unique version that was my own. 

The cover is title-less besides the spine. I wanted the imagery of the cover to allude to the books contents without directly referencing any of the illustrations. It is mysterious and unsettling like Poe's story. 

All illustrations where made with charcoal and colored with photoshop. 

I felt that the text needed a simple approach in order to emphasize the impact of the illustrations. Having it float in the black space I felt resonates with the sense of unease that the story is building on. 

The idea for the illustrations was to create mood pieces that did not illustrate the text in a literal sense, but more of a dreamlike interpretation of it. The illustrations go through the same sequence of colors as the different rooms during the masquerade.