The Lake Isle of Innisfree 

This illustration depicts a young Yeats full of longing and desire to be in the wild rural landscape of Sligo. To capture the love and yearning he expressed in the poem the illustration has a Pop-Surreal Tone, inspired by the line . The background is a mundane sepia Tone, with simple non decorative boarders, similar to something found in a city building of the 1920"s. The portrait of Yeats is full of life and colour. His heart is exposed surrounded with a scene of Innisfree, the wild ocean waves of the Atlantic, Benbulben and the linnet.

 

The Cat and the Moon 

We see a black cat gazing up at a beautiful lady, essentially the moon in this poem is Maud Gonne and Yeats is the cat. Maud’s love for the theatre and acting is combined in the depiction of this poem. The Art Nouveau inspired boarders are like the ornamental wings of a 1920’s theatre. Maud is centre stage with a starlit night sky behind her.

Maud’s face is the moon much like standing under a spotlight, the cat gazes up in admiration much like Yeats would have done watching Maud on stage. 

 

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The Mermaid

Yeats wrote this poem after he was yet again rejected by Maud. The illustration is focused more on lettering. The boarder holds a resemblance to seashells and waves while the mermaid lays over the poem in a nonchalant apathetic manner.

Lettering and typography is an interest to me and I like to combine it with my artwork on occasion. The lettering for this illustration is Sophia’s own unique style of handwriting, placed in a format inspired by vintage 1920’s branding.