The Road - Book Illustrations

Cormac McCarthy’s 2006 award winning novel “The Road” follows part of a man and his son’s journey across the post apocalyptic wasteland that is North America and possibly the world.
Although McCarthy never reveals what the cataclysm that has destroyed civilization was, he defines what it has become constantly. His writing technique is almost like poetry. He creates strong visions for the reader of the most ghastly scenes by using the most beautiful adjectives and similes eg. “stared into the light with eyes dead white and as sightless as the eggs of spiders.”
The world is a barren land where all is dead and grey, the sun barely shines on a ground thick with ash. The road is long cold and dangerous, with very little food and even less people. The majority of whom come across as either dead or ruthless thieves, murderers, rapists, and cannibals. The novel’s depressive nature is not uncommon for authors of this time. Worry and paranoia in the USA has created a flurry of Distopian literature since events like 9/11, hurricane Katrina, and the Indian Ocean tsunami.
I plan to create a series of illustrations to show my interpretations of these themes and scenes in McCarthy’s novel and try to portray his honesty within his descriptions of violence and death. However rather than simply illustrating fighting and other forms of direct violence I will try to show the outcomes, e.g. depression and suffering.

McCarthy uses a typewriter to create his work. I think it will be appropriate to use one too, as my means of illustrating his work. I will research typography techniques, incorporate them into my drawings, and hopefully use them to create entire illustrations.