The Styx

The Styx was a commission for Kammerklang.com to create cover art for Peter McNamara’s score. In mythology the River Styx divided the realms of the living and dead, it was both a source of power and a place of torment. Peter’s music captured both aspects of the Styx with great grandeur and drama. The art needed to reflect the intensity of the music, the score was grand and dark, tense in places and unsettling. I wanted to reflect this by having the river Styx be turbulent, the trapped souls are attempting to rise above the water but are being pulled down by serpentine hands. The green and yellow were used to bring out the supernatural power of The Styx.

A small black and white thumbnail exploring the layout and tone of the piece.
Followed by a selection of colour roughs.

Although this was a digital file in the end I did my first colour and style studies by hand. I used pencil and markers.

Practice depicting segments of the digital execution.

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