Digital Illustration / A Study in Scarlet

One of the main reasons I’ve been so fascinated with the Illustrated Police News lately is because of the old-school illustrations in them. I like the idea that entire front covers of newspapers around the turn of the 20th century may have been filled, essentially, with comics telling the latest news and gossip stories. Some of them are fascinating little slices of life: in looking through them, I’ve seen illustrations of stilt-walkers racing the trams in Dublin, and hot air balloons going rogue, and police tracking convicts who’ve escaped by hiding in coffins. None of those stories would’ve been half as memorable if they hadn’t had curious little illustrations alongside them. :)

With that in mind, for the front cover of my Study in Scarlet project I decided to fill the page with a sort of comic summary of Part I of story itself. From the initial discovery of a dead body at Lauriston Gardens, to Sherlock Holmes’ clever capture; it’s all based very heavily on illustrations and layouts and typography I found in actual issues of the Illustrated Police News, and also some very early artwork of Sherlock Holmes and Watson.