Inspired by the Russian boy character in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, this was really the piece where I started playing with textiles and patterns.

There is a phrase in the book that led to this illustration which I have also included–“Let not the Russian Boy be stripped of his parti-coloured rags lest he become an imperialist.”

Clad in different patchwork plaids (his pants, shoes, necktie, and collar), simple circle patterns (on his shirt), my favorite poof on the shoe, and a cape of amorphous shapes, the character literally melts into the frame of the illustration. He is perched on it’s edge–both included and excluded from what is happening within the narrative, much like his character in the book.

This was a fun one to draw because I could play with textures. I took my experiences with “The Melancholy of Orpheus” and morphed them into something new I hadn’t done before. This would ultimately lead to illustrations like the “Peacock Ballerina” where I further played with textiles and others that I look forward to sharing.