Gorey’s Guest
Sandi Arthur 2022
by Sandi Arthur
Inspiration:
The art and writings of Edward Gorey (1925-2000) are the inspiration for this project.
A little Gorey History
He also loved the ballet. While he as in New York he attended every single performance of the ballet there for 23 seasons! He even designed the sets and costumes for the story of “Dracula” that had so influenced him as a child. He won awards for his costumes and was nominated for his set design. (1978)
In his life he published over 100 of his own books and illustrated over 60 books by other authors like Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll and T.S. Elliot
His work influenced later artists like Tim Burton - “Nightmare before Christmas” and Neil Gaiman’s - “Coraline”
Gorey’s “The Gashleycrumb Tinies”
Tim Burton’s “Nightmare Before Christmas”
This is a great example of Gorey’s style… he liked to draw his characters in Edwardian or Victorian clothing and he used lots and lots of hatching and cross hatching! There are typically unexpected creatures and happenings.
Edward Gorey loved nonsense! Gorey once said "Ideally, if anything were any good, it would be indescribable” and he classified his own work as “literary nonsense.”
He stood out. He typically wore a fur coat (something once considered high brow and fancy) with jeans and Converse tennis shoes. He wore large Gothic crosses, many heavy metal rings on his fingers and wore a beard. At 6’4” he couldn’t be missed! (Later in life Gorey became an animal activist and sold his fur coats - donating money to charity.)
Edward Gorey was a Character!
This home has been turned into a museum in his honor. A small portion his collections are on display there. (There is a barn filled with much, much more!)
He spent the last 12 years of his life in Cape Cod where he vacationed as a child. He bought a 200- year-old house and named it The Elephant House.
Gorey was a crazy collector!
Most abundantly, Gorey collected books! When he passed away they found more than 26,000 books in his home!
He also collected:
and on and on and on!
(Some of his collected items were his “models” for his drawings.)
He also seemed to collect cats… the real live kind. He usually had 5 or 6. Once he had 7 but he said that was one too many!
(He liked to draw cats too!)
He may sound like a hoarder… but actually, his collections were often “models” or source material for his work.
Like the collection of tassels that have been matched in his drawings.
He did love a good garage sale!
He didn’t just collect Beanie Babies… he liked to hand sew his own. This is one example… he called it a Figbash. It’s alongside an alphabet made by arranging the Figbash into every letter of the alphabet.
(Gorey wrote more than 20 alphabet books!)
Gorey’s animation still appears before episodes of PBS’s Masterpiece Mysteries.
Gorey is also famously known for this animation at the start of PBS Mystery Series:
More examples of his work:
In art we often talk about contrast. In Gorey’s work there is contrast not only in color, but in theme. He often puts the “sweet" with the “scary” for a fun, unexpected chemistry.
Vocabulary:
PEN & INK - a style of art depicted in lines of black ink.
CROSS HATCHING - a method of adding shading to artwork using a series of criss crossed lines drawn with black ink
TEXTURE - the visual and especially tactile quality of a surface.
AMPHIGORY - a meaningless or nonsensical piece of writing, especially one intended as a parody. (Gorey has three books with “Amphigorey” titles adding the “e” as a play on words with his name.) He liked to write very little and leave much up to the reader’s imagination.
ANAGRAM - a word, phrase, or name formed by rearranging the letters of another. Gorey liked to sign his work with anagrams of his name.
VICTORIAN - of or relating to Queen Victoria or the period of her reign (1837-1901)
PERSONIFICATION - giving human traits to non-humans.
Meet the Doubtful Guest!
In one of Gorey’s stories, a family opens the door to see this strange creature.
He eventually just comes inside and makes himself at home!
He gets into all sorts of mischief - like eating the plates and tearing pages out of the family’s books!
Today we will use our imaginations to create a strange visitor of our own!�
Gorey’s guest wears a scarf and tennis shoes! This is an example of “personification”
Ideas for your guest:
scarf, eyeglasses, necktie, shoes, hat, jewelry etc.
Here is the family discovering their “guest” in the book…
The guest is quite a nuisance!
Eating plates and tearing out pages from books!
What will your guest do?
Let’s look at some samples…
Time element (evening, May, Tuesday)
Uninvited guest
Suitcase (optional)
Frame for our drawing
Cross hatching (in corners)
Strange journal entries
Anagram of your name
ELEMENTS OF OUR ART:
Plus lots of little details
Horizon line
samples…
kids’ samples…
If you don’t like spooky, that’s ok!
You can imagine a sweet guest!
Let’s Get Started…
Draw a border about 1/4” from the edges of your paper. Just do it free-hand, don’t worry about being perfect.
A little less than half-way down, and a little off-center draw your eyes. (See reference if you like.)
Look into the eyes… and then use your imagination to draw the rest of your “guest”!
There are so very many ways to draw eyes! Here are just a fraction.
And don’t forget to consider the eyebrows! Eyebrows are very important in adding expression to your character.
Eye Inspiration
Lightly draw your guest with pencil in case you need to adjust.
Add details like a suitcase. Consider a scarf, or tie, or hat or other item of human clothing. Perhaps a hostess gift? Or a pet?
Add a horizon line.
For small details, skip pencil and go right to pen.
Erase any unwanted lines first, then
Go over the pencil with pen.
Add small/repetitive details directly with pen.
Perhaps a welcome mat?
Erase the pencil when you are done.
Gorey loved to make odd journal-like lists with vague and mysterious entries. We will add an amphigory (nonsense) journal to our page:
1. Start with a “time” heading like “Tuesday” or “October” or “After Midnight”
2. Make a short list of things that happen to the person who opens the door
Add the Journal/list
(Tuesday, October, etc.)
Gorey loved to make anagrams of his name to sign or publish his work. (An anagram is when you re-arrange the letters to make new or pretend words.)
Look at the next slide for some of the anagrams he made from Edward Gorey:
One of his favorite anagrams was “Ogdred Weary” which he used for a personalized license plate as well!
Gorey loved to make anagrams of his name to sign or publish his work. (An anagram is when you re-arrange the letters to make new or pretend words.)
Look at the next slide for some of the anagrams he made from Edward Gorey:
One of his favorite anagrams was “Ogdred Weary” which he used for a personalized license plate as well!
To make a simple anagram, just put the letters of your name in reverse order,
or swap out the first letter of your first and last name.
For example: “Sandi Arthur” could be “Idnas Rutha” or “Aandi Sarthur”
Garrod Weedy
You can cross out letters as you use them.
Optional: add some spooky hatching and cross hatching in the corners
Add some other details or textures… spiders, flies, bats, items of clothing, hostess gifts, crows, etc.
Use the brush side of a grey marker to add shadows. Remember, think of the light source and add shadows opposite the light source. You can also add a shadow under your guest.
Optional:
Use the brush side of two or three markers to add some highlight color to your art!
“Extra’s”
Sources:
Biography.com
biography.com/people/edward-gorey-40616
New York Times
www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/arts/design/06gorey.html
Biography.com
www.biography.com/news/edward-gorey-biography-facts
Edward Gorey House
Harvard Magazine
You can pass out hard copies of this to put on the desks or tables.
When he was five years old, Edward Gorey’s parents took him to a play - Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
He said it “scared him to death”, but it also seemed to have a very big influence on his later life and career.
Gorey loved animals and his foundation still supports these 14 charities - almost all aimed somehow at animal welfare:
Animal Rescue League of Boston
Bat Conservation International
Carrie A Seaman Animal Shelter
Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee
International Fund for Animal Welfare
Massachusetts SPCA
National Marine Life Center
New England Society for Abandoned Animals
Pet Partners
Wild Care
Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation
Xeres Society