Saturday, May 07, 2011

Kafka's Metamorphosis


A caricature of famous writer, Franz Kafka. Considered one of the most important and influential writers of the twentieth century, most of his work only became published and celebrated after his death from Tuberculosis at age 40.

One of his most well known tales, 'Metamorphosis', is about a man who awakens to find himself transformed into a giant insect. That was my inspiration for this caricature. If you look closely you'll notice I integrated bugs and bug parts to make up the features of his head. The parted hair is made up of two large roach-like creatures, his nose is the head and neck of a Praying Mantis and the shapes of the ears, the jaw and cheeks etc, are made from various creepy crawlies. I love looking at art with depth which keeps the viewer coming back for a second look. That's what I was aiming to achieve in this piece.

This was a pencil drawing scanned and coloured in Photoshop. My custom fingerprint brush was used for the textures.

16 Comments:

Blogger Mardo said...

This should be made into a giant poster and put in university Libraries everywhere!

I don't Suppose you could do one of these for H.P.Lovecraft?

MG

9:06 PM  
Blogger Sach said...

Eerie, psychadelic undertones too!

9:53 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

this is seriously stunning. love the textures and pattern/line that the bugs left in the face. and yeah, what you said about depth.. aaah beautiful!

5:43 AM  
Blogger nico said...

Awesome ! I first saw your illustration on facebook at a very small size, so it was a big surprise when i saw all the details afterwards ! It reminds me a bit of your work on Charlie Sheen with women bodies.

10:39 PM  
Blogger Nelson Santos said...

Brilliant stuff Chris!

6:51 PM  
Blogger Mick said...

you are the best... been a while since I was here but you remain the best... you... best... yep

9:52 PM  
Anonymous Emma said...

flippant , mais vraiment chouette:)
bravo!!!

4:28 AM  
Blogger ARI said...

Absolutely fabulous your work.

7:04 AM  
Blogger Chris Wahl said...

Thanks for the comments everyone! It was a fun piece to do.

9:21 AM  
Blogger Dana said...

Oh lord your work is fantastic. So glad I stumbled upon this blog! <3

1:09 PM  
Anonymous sewa mobil said...

Very beautiful, thanks.

3:18 AM  
Blogger Bob Fingerman said...

I am somewhat in awe of the work you do. Incredible. This is one of the finest literary portraits I've seen. I would love a print of it. And I'd love to see you do more. I can only imagine what you'd do with H.P. Lovecraft.

3:15 PM  
Anonymous black said...

it's awesome. Really nice Job. It's ironic that it was so gross but it was still so nice

12:32 PM  
Blogger M. DeLeRee said...

One of my favorite stories of all time. Your art captured it very well and brought back snippets of the story just viewing it.

Thanks

1:55 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

great work, Chris!

2:30 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Looks a lot like Eric Bana!

8:58 PM  

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All artwork © Chris Wahl 2019 unless otherwise stated. All characters are copyright to their respective owners