One of my sources of base illustrations is a marvelous Punch & Judy book published by McLaughlin Bros. of New York in 1900. This contains a line-art illustration of Punch running away from the Ghost, but it also contains a much better, large sized paper doll of the Ghost himself in full color. With a little digital manipulation, I removed the ghost in the first illustration and replaced him with the paper doll. I then hand-colored Mister Punch himself. Marseilles "Death" cards have heads littered on the ground, so I used the head of an old ventriloquist dummy, again digitally processed... along with an actual Mr. Death puppet from a hand-made set of Punch and Judy puppets -- you may be seeing more of these later. For a stage floor and backdrop I used the battered cabinet and face of an old grandfather clock. Here's the nice thing, for me, anyway: The clock, the Death puppet and the ventriloquist head were all a part of my mother's extensive collection of... stuff -- and the book is something that I still have from her collection.
-- Frede.
www.ducksoup.me
