The Grimaldi Ghost by Marmotic on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

This particular image is my submission for the Illustrator's club monthly topic for August 'Ghost'. [link]

I had another image submitted which i quite like but i think it is a bit more 'edgy' for kids and i kinda felt like it was cheating somehow. I'm just not sure its really a suitable kid's illustration and thats kinda avoiding the challenge of these monthly topics. [link]

My main problem was that i wanted to avoid doing an image of a cute ghost in sheets like from Pacman or even a Casper clone... but everything i tried turned out too creepy. This is the best i can manage that keeps me happy and hopefully ain't too eerie.

So the story...

During the year I paid a visit to Antibes and the Picasso museum in the Castle Grimaldi. I'll admit here and now, that i'm not a Picasso fan-boy but the sheer diversity and playfulness of the work just shook me in my socks and made me smile again and again... and i had to applaud ol' Pablo.

Ever since then i have had a store of images in my head, different combinations of items from different compositions and they rarely settle into a happy whole or shift into an finished image that i'm happy with. I suppose i'll be working through Pablo's Grimaldi work for quite some time yet... second round of applause for ol ' Pablo.

This image in particular is based on my memory of series of paintings titled 'Still Life, Skull, Leek, Pitcher' and maybe elements of 'Night Fishing in Antibes'.

I suppose its an exercise in channeling the spirit of that visit to the Grimaldi castle and exorcising the ghost of Picasso from my system

Medium: acrylic