Eli Doering

The question that guided my sustained investigation was “How can I utilize juxtaposition and repetition to harness thematic and atmospheric fear within an illustration, evoking a sense of imminent danger or intense discomfort within the viewer?”

Beginning my sustained investigation, I was quite unsure of how to convey the atmospheres I was compelled to illustrate. I think this is most obvious in the early works containing mainly human subjects, as their direction centers more on said subjects with dark shading or common fears, which I realized was too simple. In my later works, the point of view switches to that of an onlooker to landscapes of fear. The shift from humans experiencing fear to actually putting the viewer in the seat of an onlooker provides a more grandiose sense of fear within the pieces, as it signals lack of control or lack indication of emotion. Since the pieces lack color, it becomes more subjective to the viewer’s interpretation of the lines and shading to determine how they process the fear. In the final works of this investigation, this becomes obvious from the first person point of view that fear comes from the lack of control or guidance.