The assignment for class tomorrow was to create B/W sketches for the following story - 8.5 x 11 (Finished size) color opener and 2 B/W spot illustrations.
Appointment in Samarra
(as retold by W. Somerset Maugham)
The speaker is Death
There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to the market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, "Master, just now when I was in the marketplace I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me She looked at me and made a threatening gesture. Now, lend me your horse and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me."
The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. The the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw me standing the int crowd and he came to me and said, "Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning?"
"That was not a threatening gesture," I said. "It was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Bagdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra."
I have chosen a more modern interpretation using an on-line marketplace instead of the Middle Eastern setting, as seen in my three sketches below. Collage elements have also been incorporated into all three.
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| 8.5 x 11 color opener |
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| Spot #1 |
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