challenge 09 - Inspiration post
09. classic books: for this challenge I chose 5 classic books which have in common the struggle for something; it can be a passionate and chaotic love, the lost of themselves, an interior and personal fight, the love and hate for your country, the impossible search of something better.
You can use this inspiration post as you like, but I suggest you to focus on the feelings, not just on the themes and the single images; try to catch the general mood of the challenge, even if you don't know these books! it doesn't matter! I tried to capture the themes of these books choosing the best words, prompts and images for each one of them and I hope you can understand a bit of the story just by looking at this post.
You can choose one of the following option:
easy mode: make 20 icons using this post as a general inspiration
hard mode: make 20 icons focusing on the thecnical theme of each book; you can choose to use only a book, two or all of them; it's up to you!
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
“If everybody minded their own business, the world would go around a great deal faster than it does.”
"Alice: Have i gone mad?
The Mad Hatter: I’m afraid so, but let me tell you something, the best people usually are."
“Where should I go?" -Alice. "That depends on where you want to end up." - The Cheshire Cat.”
“You crave chaos. You're happiest when the world is in an uproar. You thrive on madness. Even when your magic is at its best when it's the catalyst to confusion. You still can't admit this?”
“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?”
wordsfantasy, nonsense, falling, down the rabbit hole, creatures, logic, peculiar, illusion, pool of tears, poison, madness, chaos, impossible things, curious, time
alisea_dream x 2 | xafirah
theotherayn x 2 | cannedwinething
xafirah | tturners | vanessa_lj
technical theme
Focus on the details, the soft tones of a dream, the weird and unusual aspects, be bold with the compositions, be brave like Alice, go small and then bigger; paint with soft strokes and don't be scared of your imagination, the best things are the maddest.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
“I do know that for the sympathy of one living being, I would make peace with all. I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other.”
“There is something at work in my soul, which I do not understand.”
“It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall be more attached to one another.”
“Why did I not die? More miserable than man ever was before, why did I not sink into forgetfulness and rest? Death snatches away many blooming children, the only hopes of their doting parents: how many brides and youthful lovers have been one day in the bloom of health and hope, and the next a prey for worms and the decay of the tomb!”
“The fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet even that enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone.”
wordsgothic, horror, science, mind, hideous, creature, experiment, volcanic winter, rejection, monster, demon, evil, ambiguos, painful, fearless yet powerful, misery, disappointment, mutable
xafirah | lady_kingsley | tturners
theotherayn | tturners | lookslikerain
derniers_vers | dixon | angelamaria
technical theme
Tell me about your darkest and worst sides, escape the light and hide your face and bloody hands; let the world see your back and the smallest details, focus on them, cherish them! You are a scientist, a mathematician and we want to see your work: letters, numbers, formulas, your tools. You're alone, outcasted, not understood and your feelings are your strongest weapon, show them, let the people know who you truly are.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
“My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Healthcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being.”
“I'll be as dirty as I please, and I like to be dirty, and I will be dirty!”
“Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! it is unutterable! I can not live without my life! I can not live without my soul!”
“I have dreamt in my life, dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they have gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind. And this is one: I'm going to tell it - but take care not to smile at any part of it.”
“He's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”
“I have not broken your heart - you have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine.”
wordstragedy, gothic, mental and physical cruelty, victorian, hypocrisy, morality, social classes, inequality, peace, selfishness, soul, free, melancholy, ghosts, abyss, broken heart, burn too bright, destroyed, nature
drivemytardis x2 | alisea_dream
12feethigh x2 | novindalf
novindalf | oxoniensis | tturners
technical theme
Love is not always easy, kind, with pink confetti and bloomed flowers; it can be unruly, passionate in the worst way, wild, demonic, chaotic. Focus on the sadness, the muted tones, the wild nature and still life. Add a hint of fog, dust, grunge, old, dirt like the souls of the characters.
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
“Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm. ”
“There comes an end to all things; the most capacious measure is filled at last; and this brief condescension to evil finally destroyed the balance of my soul.”
“With every day, and from both sides of my intelligence, the moral and the intellectual, I thus drew steadily nearer to the truth, by whose partial discovery I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but truly two.”
“Good and evil are so close as to be chained together in the soul.”
“The secret to a happiness is a small ego. And a big wallet. Good wine helps, too. But that's not really a secret, is it?”
“It was for one minute that I saw him, but the hair stood upon my head like quills. Sir, if that was my master, why had he a mask upon his face?”
wordsstrange, psychological, drama, horror, mystery, ghotic, mask, good vs shockingly evil, dual nature, two, personalities, doppelgänger, human nature, struggle, conscious mind, fall, chained, deep, unstable, clock, thunderstorm, chief of sinners
anobrain | xafirah | jsfunction
angelamaria | a_thari | afeastforme
sietepecados | jsfunction | poisonfield
technical theme
It's all about duality: good and evil, close and far, small and big, dark and light, order and chaos and it all lays in the same person: different faces of the same coin as you may say. One minute there's balance and the next there's caos, missing peaces and hidden truths.
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
“Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.”
“A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is visible labor and there is invisible labor.”
“There is always more misery among the lower classes than there is humanity in the higher.”
“Teach the ignorant as much as you can; society is culpable in not providing a free education for all and it must answer for the night which it produces. If the soul is left in darkness sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness.”
“What Is Love? I have met in the streets a very poor young man who was in love. His hat was old, his coat worn, the water passed through his shoes and the stars through his soul”
“The future has several names. For the weak, it is impossible; for the fainthearted, it is unknown; but for the valiant, it is ideal.”
wordshepic, historical, architecture, urban design, justice, familial love, social condemnation, destiny, poverty, ruin, degradation, streets, invisible, future, impossible, two roads, riot, disgust, progress, conscience
theotherayn | songburst | 24_amends
pamkips | watchpoint | burntheflaws
neatmonster | 12feethigh | lady_kingsley
technical theme
There aren't enough words, colors and layers to describe the complexity of a miserable soul, but you can try with a hint of hope, red and blue colors, beautiful scenery, historical setting and nice dresses. But don't forget what lays beneath: the degradation, revolution, misery, mistakes, anger and vengeance.. Show the beauty but find your way to show the ugly, too.