The Book of After

The Book of After is my ongoing project to illustrate every song in the band Ghost's recorded catalog, in a heraldry-inspired illuminated manuscript style. Don't see your favorite song here? Have no fear- I'll get to it eventually. Follow along as I go a little crazy and have a great time getting there.

[thebookofafter]

Paper Pushers

I have a little bit of news for anyone in the Seattle area! There is going to be a six-month pop up bookstore called Paper Pushers, run by the Seattle Printers' Guild, and they will be carrying a small run of my Infernal Psalms zine! (As well as a non-Ghost zine I made last year, called Pursuivant)

The bookstore will open April 26th and run through November, and can be visited at 1200 5th Ave in downtown Seattle (the former IBM building.) It sounds like there will be lots of other neat zines and art and gifts there, too.

For anyone not local to Seattle though, or who can't make it to the store, I am working on getting things ready to sell my zines online. And for every 13 heraldry I complete for this project, there will be a new Infernal Psalms issue.

[thebookofafter]

Three months down of the Paper Pushers pop up zine store, three more to go, and it sounds like it's been doing really well! There are still copies available of my Infernal Psalms zine, as well as my non-Ghost zine Pursuivant, for those local that want them.

For those who have been so patiently waiting for them to be sold online, we are so close. Just three more heraldry to go until Infernal Psalms issue 2 will be coming out, and then both issue 1 and 2 will be available online. There may be a few other goodies in the works as well...

[thebookofafter]

I found a perfect reference picture for Miasma, but it took me a while to tackle this one because I was worried I wouldn't be able to draw it. But I am really pleased with how I managed! I wanted this one to look like Order was being torn open to reveal the Chaos beneath it. So please welcome the first instrumental that I have illustrated.

[thebookofafter]

A big round of applause for Father Jim DeFroque! He will be accepting donations in cash, check, credit card, Venmo, Zelle, CashApp, Paypal, gold bullion, stolen artefacts, dubiously acquired electronics, or drugs and/or alcohol.

Honestly this one came together pretty easily. The hardest part was coming up with the concept! I knew I wanted to reference the infamous Father DeFroque, but originally he wasn't even going to be in it. But I changed my mind on the layout about four different times, and in the end, this is what I went with.

[thebookofafter]

Gasp, more colored art! This one went so much faster, probably because I didn't have to search so long for tools and looking up tutorials. I am so, so happy with this one. This sticker will be sent with the second issue of Infernal Psalms.

[thebookofafter]

What? Art in color? How can this be?

Okay, confession time. I am the most beginner newbie in digital coloring. That's why all my art is in black and white. But, when I have enough heraldry to make the second issue of Infernal Psalms (only six more!), I am going to be putting both issue 1 and issue 2 up online for sale. Included with every purchase will be a fancy in color sticker. I have been playing around with the design to be sent with issue 1. This is not necessarily the final design! But I am really proud of how much I have learned so far that I wanted to show it off.

[thebookofafter]

I kind of took the line of "machinery insect," mentally mixed in Peacefield's lyric of "a state machine," and ran with it. Also, there was no way I was going to pass up an opportunity to draw bugs. So we have the mantis, famous for the females eating the heads off their partners after mating, and representing in this artwork both as bodily autonomy and a symbol of Sister's ruthlessness.

It is guarding her from hornets, which like bees are often hive insects, and have a Queen. The Queen is protected and served by the hive, so long as she is producing offspring. A Queen that fails to perform is disposed of by the hive. So the hornets here are representing society's expectations of a woman to procreate, and that it will care for her only if she is performing her "duties" to society's standards.

Anyway, that was my thought process on this one!

[thebookofafter]

A lot of the pieces I have done recently have been elaborate little scenes, and for Kiss the Go-Goat, I wanted to draw something a little closer to the heraldic source material. This is still taking a lot of liberties with the art form. But I knew for sure that I wanted to draw a demon goat rampant (which is what that pose is called.) The top part of the shield was originally just going to suggest the shape of a lovely full buttock, more abstract, but(t) in the end I just preferred it more realistic, what can I say?

[thebookofafter]

I am reposting this one, because the original post I put up got flagged for being too mature for sweet innocent eyes. Probably for the pictures of my references, which I do understand, though I was hoping somehow I would get a pass. It's fine, but I am putting up this one without the references, because I am very proud of it and want it to see the light of day.

For those curious about my thoughts on this piece and seeing these very scary reference pics, they can be found here.

[thebookofafter]

From the very beginning of this project, I had a very clear image in my head of how I would illustrate this song. It took me so long to get to it because I wasn't sure my drawing skills were up to the challenge. I've felt that way a lot during this, but with every drawing, I am learning to not only trust myself more, but to just jump in and have fun with the process, even if I am uncertain if I can do the piece justice. Every one of these I do, I feel like I get a little better, and that alone makes me excited enough to keep going.

More about references and inspiration under the cut (trigger warning for a little blood and unclothed Ken doll):

This piece was very heavily inspired by a piece of art I found on DeviantArt in the ye olden days of 2003.

I saved this file to my computer because it made me feel some kind of way. Sad and wistful and hopeful all at the same time. I thought of this picture immediately, the first time I heard Stay. I don't know whose art this is, and it's been so long, I wouldn't know how to track them down to credit them, if they even still are around. The signature looks like PE('), I guess? Anyway, whoever they are, this picture has meant a lot to me, from my long ago days as an angsty teenager.

And finally, because I think it's funny, here is the reference I set up for this piece:

I didn't even know how to describe the pose I wanted to look it up while I was working on this, so I gave in and decided I needed an articulated drawing model. The reviews for all of the ones I saw said things like, "This is the most amazing thing, I don't know how I lived without it!" and "This is garbage and falls apart immediately out of the box, a complete waste of money" in equal measure. Someone suggested a Made-to-Move Ken doll would be better, so that is what I bought. You might be seeing more of dear ol' Ken in the future.

[thebookofafter]

Paper Pushers

I have a little bit of news for anyone in the Seattle area! There is going to be a six-month pop up bookstore called Paper Pushers, run by the Seattle Printers' Guild, and they will be carrying a small run of my Infernal Psalms zine! (As well as a non-Ghost zine I made last year, called Pursuivant)

The bookstore will open April 26th and run through November, and can be visited at 1200 5th Ave in downtown Seattle (the former IBM building.) It sounds like there will be lots of other neat zines and art and gifts there, too.

For anyone not local to Seattle though, or who can't make it to the store, I am working on getting things ready to sell my zines online. And for every 13 heraldry I complete for this project, there will be a new Infernal Psalms issue.

[thebookofafter]

Tiny details are the name of the game for this one. A lot of fun when I was drawing the clock, a lot harder when I was trying to draw the teeny-tiny couples. I had to buy a .03 lead pencil for it, because everything else was too thick.

(That's what she said)

But fun fact! If you need good references for couples in dynamic and suggestive poses, I recommend photos of ballet dancers.

[thebookofafter]

Here at last, we have our poll winner, Darkness At The Heart Of My Love! There were a few different things I specifically wanted to include in this one, such as a play on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, but issuing out large clouds of obscuring smoke. The snake for our path serpentine, but mostly, I just wanted to draw a ghoul. With four arms so he could make a bunch of hand gestures, and also because I like characters with a few extra limbs. Please enjoy!

[thebookofafter]

My original idea for this one was to make the more traditional shoulder devil and angel, in a more classic illuminated manuscript style. One pouring the other a drink, the latter offering the former a piece of meat. And then I figured, why go generic when there's a pair of canonical twins that I could draw? And that's how we ended up here. Also included are a befriended rat, and a many a thorn standing between.

As per my poll from a few days ago, my next piece will be Darkness At The Heart Of My Love. The voting was incredibly close, and I think if there were one fewer person voting, we probably would have had a three-way tie.

[thebookofafter]

I have already started the next piece for this series, but I was curious if anyone wanted to weigh in on what song I should draw up after that. I seem to have a handful of followers now, so I figured I could get at least a couple of responses!

So, what song should I illustrate next?

Darkness At The Heart Of My Love

Call Me Little Sunshine

Monstrance Clock

Voting ended onMar 4

[thebookofafter]

We are back, baby!

The first time I heard this song, I did have to look up what a cruciger globus actually was. I'd seen them before in shows and movies, but had never known what they were called. I also had to look up what the Nicene creed was when I first heard Satan Prayer. I have learned all kinds of new things since finding Ghost.

Honestly, the past couple weeks have been hard to be creative. The Seattle ritual was fantastic, but I was super drained emotionally afterward. Then going back to work the week after kicked my butt (just a lot of long days when I was already really tired), and then everything that has been going on with the Skeletour ending... I just needed a bit to take a breath, remind myself of everything I love and what has inspired me about this band, and put pencil to paper again. Drawing this one has been good for me. This project is far from over, and the Ghost fandom needs its creators more than ever now.

Bonus: the reference I had to put together for this drawing:

In what has become a fact of my existence now, I was once again unable to find exactly what I was looking for reference-wise for this drawing. I have to do everything myself around here.

[thebookofafter]

I saw your zine being passed around in Seattle at the trinket trade and I unfortunately didn’t get one. I wish I had because I love your art so much!

Thank you so much! I wanted to give out more, but unfortunately I ran out of copies. But I will be doing another print run, and also more zines as I make new art. I will post about it here to let people know how they can get them. Thank you again for your kind words!

[thebookofafter]

Some text I drew out to screen-print on a sweatshirt I made to wear at my ritual. I screen-printed these on the sleeves.