Thinking with Ink during Know Poe

Leah uses a fine paintbrush so she can ink detail lines.

We're celebrating Edgar Allan Poe's work all July during the Know Poe festival at Mentor Library.

When we talk about Poe's influence, we're mostly talking about his affect on writers. He did, after all, create two genres: the horror and detective story.

But Poe influenced all types of artists. (We've already discussed his effect on cinema.) And Monday, we talked about the influence his stories had on illustration.

Lou Geis includes a "Quote the Raven" in the corner of his inking.

Poe is associated with dark art—which is not to be confused with the dark arts. When his stories included illustrations, they all made us of heavy lines and midnight blacks. That's partly a byproduct of technology. With the proliferation of presses, inked prints became more common than paintings.

So when Poe collections were being printed, it made more sense aesthetically and economically to illustrate them with dark, heavy inkings.

Elizabeth uses heavy, dark lines to draw the viewer's eyes to her tree branches.

Artist Del Borovic taught a workshop Monday night at our Main Branch that showed people how they can make their own Gothic ink masterpieces. (You can find more photos from the workshop on Mentor Library's Facebook page.)

And we'll be having more Poe events all month. Our Know Poe film festival continues this Thursday with a free screening of Vincent Price's The Raven at the Atlas Cinemas at Great Lakes Mall.

Then, on July 19, we're hosting a horror writing workshop for teens.

Click here for a full list of our Know Poe programming.