First Post

So I've tried writing on this thing numerous times and every time i end up quitting half way through because i can't think of anything good to say. But since the Elys (Senior Thesis for you non-Uarts kids) started i figure this is a good way to share my work and my process. These are some color studies for my first piece. It's a book cover for Short Stories by O. Henry. The image is based on his most popular story "The Gift of the Magi" I'm working on the finish now. I told Ralph (my teacher) I liked the green better but I changed my mind and decided to go with the blue. The colors aren't exact. They're all going to change a bit in the final piece. This is just kind of a general idea of what colors go where. There's also a few things missing including the text, but like i said it will change for the finish.





I feel like blue fits the mood of the story better. Its kind of a sad story but in the end its also kind of happy depending on how you look at it. I'm pretty sure O. Henry intended for it to be happy. If you haven't read it I highly recommend it. I'm a huge fan of O. Henry. The Gift of the Magi was the first one of his stories I ever read way back in 7th grade. (I thank Mrs. Brubaker for that)

When I started the Ely's I really wanted to do 4 covers all for O. Henry stories but I realized it wouldn't make much sense to do a book cover for a story that's only couple pages long so I decided to do one that was recognizable for a collection of his work. In the end the theme of my Ely is Authors of short storys. Next up is Dubliners by James Joyce, The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker (which also includes her poetry, reviews and letters to friends) and Nine Stories by J. D. Salinger.

And while we're on the subject of books I'll leave you with a link to this wonderful blog I found today.
http://bookshelves.tumblr.com/