Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a lyrical ballad by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, first published in 1798.
It tells the tale of a man on a voyage by sea who in an impulsive act kills an albatross flying over his ship. This sets off a sequence of disasters and strange, supernatural events for the ship and its crew as the Mariner is forced to face the punishment for his crime and must perform his penance.
The poem is loaded with biblical allusions and the moral of the story is to not trespass with god’s creations as every creature is beautiful and has a life. The mariner learns this lesson the hard way.
In the poem, the story is narrated to a young man by the aged Mariner , who is the last surviving member of the crew and has been cursed to roam the earth, telling his tale.
The poem has fascinated me ever since I first read it in school in the 11th grade. I had always wanted to realize the dramatic visual potential of the poem capturing the dark and supernatural nature of it some day.
The book was meticulously storyboarded and a style was developed to fit the tone and atmosphere of the story.
The style I illustrated the book in used a muted colour palette, dramatic compositions with a lot of shadows. After I pencilled the sketches, they were digitally inked and coloured.
Illustrations
Thank You.
