(urth) Speaking of Art...

[Jerry Friedman]

From: Lane Haygood <lhaygood at gmail.com>



>It may just be me, but I always assumed Sev's mask was a black/fuligin hood like 
>medieval >executioners wore. 

In Ch.XXVII of SotT, Severian says that his mask is leather stiffened with bone, 
and he snaps it open.

>On Jan 4, 2011, at 2:42 PM, Son of Witz <Sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org> wrote:

>>Luchadore! Ahhhh!

"Luchador" (although there's apparently a WWE wrestler known as "El Gran 
Luchadore").  I thank you and Dan'l for your attention to this matter. :-)

Incidentally, I have watched a part of a lucha libre bout, but I failed to 
recognize the style of mask.  So I apologize to you and Dan'l and anyone else 
whose imagination I harmed.


>>Well, not bad really.>>Cyriaca mentions his chin is  covered, because she 
>>guesses he has a cleft chin, and Sev says she's
>>wrong, and she says he is wrong. So whether he has a cleft chin or not  is 
>>ambiguous, but it is
>>covered, and she says she can see enough of his  lips, implying that they are 
>>partially covered.
>>One imagines slits.

One does.  I'd forgotten that it covered his chin.


>>Anyway, it may not be obvious untill you actually try to draw Severian in garb, 
>>but with a fuligin >>cloak and fuligin pants and boots and mask, which should 
>>properly be rendered as pure black >>with no highlights (except possibly where 
>>the material is dirty or guilded, as in the master's >>ceremonial masks) leaves 
>>an artist with mostly a silhouette with bare chest, some bits of lip and >>flesh 
>>eyelids showing, but not much else.

It wasn't obvious, but it did eventually occur to me.  However, does this apply 
to Severian's leather clothes (boots, mask,  probably baldric), or can they be 
just black?  Not that that solves the  problem.

>>Plus it often looks like some fetish bondage superhero thing.

Just "often"?

>>All this goes away when I show chin and mouth. Suddenly there is a character 
>>whose emotions >>can be drawn to some degree.

Interesting.

>> Luckily, Severian actually whears the mask very seldom in the story.  

I suppose the bad news is that those are scenes you might like to depict--the 
avern duel, the executions at Saltus, the encounter with Cyriaca.


>>Of course, that begs the question as to why picture him, on the hardcover, like 
>>some angsty >>bondage hero? That is the Severian he grew OUT of and did his best 
>>to leave behind. >>Thematically, it's almost rude to frame his book with him in 
>>garb. 

Well, it was the starting point of the whole thing, and way cooler than the 
Autarch's robes, I suspect.

Jerry Friedman

On Jan 4, 2011, at 10:34 AM, Jerry Friedman <jerry_friedman at yahoo.com> wrote:



>
>From: Son of Witz <Sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org>
>
>...
>
>
>>At a point, an artist needs to divert from the text.  I have been unable to draw 
>>a torturers mask with
>>a chin that I like one bit.  Somehow, for me, the whole mouth and jaw need to be 
>>shown for
>>aesthetic reasons.
>...
>
>I know part of his mouth is supposed to be hidden, but does his chin have to 
>be?  If not, how about some variation of this shape?
>
>
>http://www.myspace.com/albino_bullfrog/photos/13129598#%7B%22ImageId%22%3A13129598}
>
>
>Jerry Friedman


      
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