OUIL505 - Visual Journal initial imaging

Going forward with Kafka's collection of short stories, I've begun by attempting to illustrate arguably hist most well known work, "The Metamorphosis", which is about the travelling salesman Gregor Samsa awakening one morning to find he has been transformed into a cockroach.

The flailing cockroach legs are the first visually described action of the book, so I felt it appropriate to begin my visual journal by illustrating it. 

The early thumbnails are my interpretation of the family's initial sighting of Gregor, a significant scene which I have been trying to compose based on what I read about composition in Loomis' "Creative Illustration".

Up until this point, I realized I hadn't done many studies of cockroaches themselves which would help this project move forward greatly, and so I went on to draw them from reference, playing with line and mark in a way that would most interestingly convey the mood of the story. I am particularly pleased with the cockroach which is made up of scribbles and legs - I want to incorporate this into an illustration at some point if I can make it fit.