Nothing comes for Caleb - Chelicerae
One of the four illustrations I did for Joey Mannino's poem "Chelicerae"
In this poem Caleb is plagued by visions of three different women, You, Nothing and Shadow. This required me to design four characters, all of them overlapping but needing to be distinct and recognizable.
Nothing was a bit more ephemeral. A woman but a monster, the trick was to find a way to make her alluring but disturbing. I worked to find a cross between Lady Godiva and Banshees.
The final Illustration.
Early designs for Nothing explored the idea of a reanimated corpse. Portions of her would no longer exist, but feminine features like her breasts, legs, and hair would remain.
Three initial concepts for Nothing. One inspired by No Face from "Spirited Away", one inspired by Banshees and Lady Godiva, and the third inspired by zombies and reanimated corpses.
The original illustration for this scene focused entirely on Nothing as she crawled along the wall. This was ultimately scrapped to show Caleb's reaction and bring the quality to par with the other illustrations.