"The Counterfet" is a work in progress: a graphic adaptation of Edmund Spenser's "The Faerie Queene." The first three books of Spenser's epic fantasy were presented to Queen Elizabeth in 1590. Spenser continued to write, completing book 6 and additional content called "Mutabilitie;" However, Spenser died before the massive story was finished. The writing style was mock-archaic, made to seem older even for the time it was written, so much of the spelling is unconventional. The title of our work is from Spenser's archaic spelling of counterfeit. 

Spenser's "counterfet" referred to a minor character named False Florimell. She is a witch's concoction of gold, mercury, snow, ivory and wax to create a copy of the real Florimell: a woman who the witch's son is hopelessly in love with. But False Florimell is animated by a wicked spirit borrowed from the Devil, thus she goes rogue and brings chaos into Faerie Land.

Originally, I wanted to depict the characters using real models overlaid with digital painting. Below you'll see some concept sketches and costume tests. The idea was to then blend these characters with Eric's water colour paintings.

Eventually we decided to forgo the live action characters and use full water colour paintings. This leaves me free to concentrate on the adaptation and Eric can have total control of the imagery. The painted samples below are entirely Eric's work.

A short excerpt of the project can be found in The Graphic Canon: Volume 1.