The Voyage of the Hector - Album Artwork

The Voyage of the Hector is a story of prolonged and bitter suffering. The people who sailed on this boat had been (in some cases brutally) evicted from their ancestral homes but also subject to an incredibly ill thought out and poorly executed trans atlantic voyage. Despite the death, disease and heartbreak that ensued on their 11 week ordeal the story of the Hector is essentially a story of survival, unimaginable strength, perseverance and hope and this is what John Somerville took as the inspiration for his composition. With the promise of provisions, land and free passage to Nova Scotia the folk that set out on this journey had high hopes for a better life. In reality the provisions were meagre, the ship was dilapidated, dysentery and smallpox claimed 18 lives, most of them children and a gale off the coast of New Foundland - whilst in sight of land - blew the boat back into the Atlantic. To add insult to injury when they arrived in Pictou they realised the farm land they had been promised was forested and wild and the year provisions they had been promised were non existent. Despite all these hardships the people who survived essentially prevailed and flourished in their new home despite further unimaginable challenges.Rarely do I get to revel in 'complete artistic freedom', other than one stipulation to not make the art work dark and brutal John Somerville gave me the green light to do as I pleased on this one. So what you see here is unadulterated pure schmo. John's composition featured 8 movements so we used an 8 panel digifile with each panel reflecting the story and mood of each movement. Each panel began as a hand drawn illustration, doing it the old way with pencil and ink on a3 paper. The drawings would be scanned and coloured in the computer, although in some cases I would do some water colour for specific elements where a softer more organic look was required. The story of the Hector is tough and trying to convey the suffering and pain that the passengers experienced tastefully without graphically representing the brutality was quite difficult. John had named one movement 'The Blanket of Waves' which conveyed the mournful act of jettisoning the dead children over the side of the ship. This panel was particularly difficult, thinking of such an incredibly brutal act does not tend to inspire light and colourful imagery. My first thought was to use a teddy bear in the water, however Teddy Bears hadn't been invented in 1773. Turns out the only toys children were likely to have in those days were peg dolls made form washing pegs and scraps of fabric. So in the end this is what I used, I have to confess that in my opinion something this brutal deserves to be displayed in plain sight, un doctored and conveyed with a brutality that reflects the reality of the situation. However the tone of Johns composition is full of hope and light and reflects - as far as possible - the good aspects of this epic story. So I had to constantly bear this in mind and not get bogged down in the dark and morbid elements of the tale and portray the story in a similar light as John had with his music.The Music itself is thoroughly accomplished. Spad Reid the recording engineer has captured the sound of the room beautifully. And the line up of musicians represents the very best of the Scottish folk scene. The album is organic, lush and honest a work of genuine brevity and gravitas.