Artist Response: Edward Gorey

Edward Gorey's work

The way in which Edward Gorey illustrates with pen and ink drawings is one of the main reasons why I am drawn to his work. Illustrating dark themes in such a specific way like this is what adds to the Gothic theme of his work, which I find really interesting. He uses multiple line in a repeated, scratchy style to create a feeling of discomfort.

My response

I responded to Gorey's work by drawing this image to the left in my sketch book by using pen and ink. I looked carefully at the formal elements such as line and pattern in Gorey's work to repeat these techniques in my response.

The most successful part about this response, in my opinion, is the first wall above the flooring. The thin lines going downward, with the darker lines above them creates a dark, depressing mood in the young girls bedroom.

My response

As I was intrigued by Gorey's pen and ink drawings, I decided to create a second response. I think that this response is less successful than my first response because I have used less of the formal elements such as line and pattern. I believe that this response would be a lot more successful with more lines and patterns; The reason that I did not do so is that I thought it would have been quite hard to find the young boy and knife if it was surrounded by so many lines and patterns.

I am going to explore Gorey's technique of pen and ink drawings further as I find that it is really successful in illustrating dark and taboo themes.