Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

OgnjenPavkovicArt OP t1_je0kump wrote

Bookcover illustration of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis!

Had so much fun experimenting with composition and broken perspective, plus decided to stop using Pergament effect and concentrate more on pure traditional energy :D

Done traditionally with graphite on paper. For more art and process behind it, you can find me at https://www.instagram.com/ogipavkovicart/

20

Andreas1120 t1_je14uxu wrote

One morning Gregor Samsa found himself turned into a GRASSHOPPER ;) ?

32

yellow__ck t1_je15vnh wrote

I really like the art, I would have went with a more mundane font though, the book has very little terror and a lot of quite isolation.

153

AlleyGreen23 t1_je1bbez wrote

In college we had to illustrate this for a project. One classmate did his take on it that was absolutely hilarious and very different from the rest.

He drew the perspective that it was just a crazy ass human, not a bug, just laying there in bed who’d soiled himself wearing an adult diaper.

The look on the instructors face was absolutely priceless.

65

HRduffNstuff t1_je1hgwf wrote

Just read this for the first time a couple days ago. Awesome artwork! Funny and sad little book.

11

nonicethingsforus t1_je1ozeh wrote

Replying to HRduffNstuff (#2,424,686)

May I ask: what did you find funny?

Not an accusation or anything. It's just that I didn't find the book funny, but more than one person I've talked with have. I wonder if I'm missing something. I read it relatively young, so maybe I just don't remember, or the funny parts flew past me. The soulcrush didn't, for some reason, so I remember the book as anything but funny.

9

HRduffNstuff t1_je1q5ju wrote

Replying to nonicethingsforus (#2,426,014)

Dude wakes up as a giant bug and spends a good chunk of the beginning of the book not concerned about that at all, just stressed that he's late for work and focused on getting out of bed and getting to work asap lol. It's kind of silly in that way.

Or all the times he thinks he can convince anyone of anything while going up to them and making bug noises at them. Like him approaching them will elicit anything other than terror or disgust at the human sized bug monster. The ridiculousness of it is funny to me.

But it does get much sadder as it goes on and his state deteriorates. Once his family all have to start working and the three strangers move in, the soul crushing feeling really sets in. That and the apple just left to rot in his back.

24

iluv80spop t1_je1qrbe wrote

The font doesn’t do the painting justice, it looks too amateurish to me, unless it’s intentionally campy. It also somehow makes everything look like an indie music album cover, which is actually a cool thing!

6

dfjdejulio t1_je1sry3 wrote

Looks like an album cover for a rock opera version...

9

throwawater t1_je1zxfp wrote

Replying to AlleyGreen23 (#2,425,084)

I mean, in the story, Gregor is definitely a very large bug. The servant said he looked like a dung beetle. His whole family sees him as a bug, as do strangers, his former boss, etc. It's pretty overt. Apples don't get stuck in human backs either.

Like, I understand the symbolism, and how it is said Kafka was relating how he felt as an outsider at the time.

But the character was a bug in the story.

29

a_casual_observer t1_je29kgb wrote

Before I read the book I thought it would be about someone's slow descent into madness as they turn into an insect over time.

2

jvrcb17 t1_je2clei wrote

This belongs in /r/fakealbumcovers

1

10KTeacupTigers t1_je2dsll wrote

Replying to OgnjenPavkovicArt (#2,419,006)

The perspective is on point. The way it draws the eye is very unnerving, but there's also a certain mundanity about it resulting largely from a 90° rotation. Hard to put into words but in lot of ways, I think this mirrors "kafkaesque" in all the right ways l.

4

AlleyGreen23 t1_je2mvst wrote

Replying to throwawater (#2,427,766)

I honestly don’t recall the details, but I trust your word. And can contest 99% of the class drew the character as a bug.

The instructor was kinda religious and was hilarious seeing his face in disgust with the drawing of the diapered dude who shit himself. I don’t think that guy got an A but it was pretty funny.

11

newPhntm t1_je2ni3b wrote

My grandparents owned a souvenir shop in the Czech Republic and sold Franz kafka shirts there actually (Franz kafka was czech)

2

limoncocuk t1_je2upe1 wrote

Replying to AlleyGreen23 (#2,423,588)

I have done pretty much the same thing when I was in university assigned with the same task.

Apparently Kafka didn't want any insects on the cover of the book. And I aced that class(illustration was horrible) because of my respect for the author's wishes.

3

throwawater t1_je2v1up wrote

Replying to AlleyGreen23 (#2,431,874)

I bet it was, it was a great take on the concept too! Totally absurd!

I had to rack my brain to remember if the story was told third person. >!Then I remembered that the story continues after Gregor dies.!<

8

dzhastin t1_je32gvt wrote

The font sucks and totally doesn’t get the point of the book

3

unsanemaker t1_je3auis wrote

I have a weird love hate relationship with this book. Different translations have different wording. Some use the phrase of verminous creature. Others use the phrase verminous bug. I've even seen one use the phrase monstrous insect. And yet, no matter how many times I mentioned this, everyone thinks I'm crazy if I tell them that I don't actually believe that this man is turning into a creature but rather is having a mental breakdown in turn he believes he is turning into a creature. My proof of this is when they have guests over and they're all confused as to what he is doing on the walls. If you saw a giant insect, you would run. No one would stay there. And yet, the daughter still continues to play the violin and the guests are confused. They are watching a man basically rub feces on the wall and they have no idea how to respond because of how out of the ordinary it is. I am very much convinced that the character had a mental breakdown and never turned into a bug to begin with.

2

RiffRaff2230 t1_je3l6vn wrote

Can someone link the Reddit post about the guy who read this and fantasized about being a large alien roach with an imaginary roach lover, and accidentally told his fantasy to his coworkers by referring to his ‘wife’ and then he felt ostracized, and he told hips GF about his fantasy and how he imagined her as this alien roach lady to get off, and then she left him?

3

SIXTYNINE-420 t1_je3s9ry wrote

Funnily enough Franz Kafka himself specifically requested - upon the publishing of his novel - that the cover not feature any depiction of an insect of any kind and to let the reader imagine what sort of vague ambiguous insectoid Gregor may have turned into. He also suggested perhaps and image of an open door leading to a dark room (specific wording escapes me).

3

afk2448 t1_je4dxi1 wrote

like the art but kafka insisted on no illustration when published. As he did not want his work to be published at all. So, for me, there is not much worth to it. Thanks for sharing!!

2

Upst8r t1_je4ngb8 wrote

Beautiful.

I love Kafka.

2

carlydelphia t1_je56aw2 wrote

I like this, but I do not care for this book. So much so that I don't care for the name Gregor either...it was so long ago that I read it that I don't even remember why...

1