Ruddigore - or, the Witch's Curse.

For the past six years, I've been asked to produce publicity material for a local Operatic group who produce an annual Gilbert and Sullivan operetta . The Rose hill Musical Society are performing 'Ruddigore' this year. As part of the story, the 'Hero' is surrounded by ghosts who are the living images of his dead relatives who emerge from large portraits. After producing half a dozen rough images for the client, the drawing below was chosen as the one to base the final artwork on.

Having satisfied with the above sketch, I then moved onto producing the pencil work on which I would apply the final inking. Below you can see that I've developed each figure to a higher degree.

 Below I've applied ink to the hero figure as he is frightened by the emerging ghost from the painting. the stage costumes are based on the Regency period in UK which was circa 1790 - 1820 ish!

 Below you can see I've now inked the ghost and his picture frame...two other frames can be seen giving a bit of dramatic perspective to the composition. I've penciled in the title 'Ruddigore'..the 'R' of which will be like a picture frame holding a silhouetted image of a witch.

The final work will be completed tomorrow. Once scanned, I will be producing a full colour and 2 colour version of the image which the client can chose from for final delivery to the printers who add the final text for printing.

If you'd like to read more about the plot and characters from 'Ruddigore' click here