Which author is an Icon?

[Manchegan]

I've got to draw an icon in the early christian Byzantine style for an art appreciation class. I want to use an author for mine, but which would be best? I'm leaning toward Joyce, mostly because eyepatches are fun.

Any one else have any ideas? There has to be symbols of the person in the background (ex: Irish flag) so keep that in mind too.

Muchos gracias amigos

[Whifflingpin]

How about Tennyson, Walt Whitman, George Orwell, R L Stevenson, Kit Marlowe, the Bard himself.

They all look like writers, at least, unlike the vast majority of writers, who look pretty ordinary (excepting Macchiaveli, of course, who looks charming witty and wise, with a hint of dark secrecy)

There are, of course, a few women authors who would look well in an icon - Mary Wortley Montague, E Nesbit, Colleen McCullough, the list goes on. Of those, maybe Nesbit looks the most spiritual - rightly so.

[janesmith]

I think Virginia Woolf would make an interesting subject. She was certainly unusual looking.

[Travis_R]

I'd choose Huxley.

I would consider Vonnegut but most people would probably mistake him for Einstein.

[The Comedian]

Edward Abbey, with Glen Canyon Damn in the background. That'd be a shootin' good drawing.

[Blanket Heist]

Cool comics.

[Pryderi Agni]

Uhhhh...try, say, Isaac Asimov or Oscar Wilde!

[kelby_lake]

There's always Shakey :)

[stlukesguild]

I'd probably choose an "iconic" author: Shakespeare, Chaucer, Dante, Goethe, Virgil, Cervantes, etc...

[Mariner]

Are you making an actually icon, or just drawing icon-style? I love those old Byzantine icons.

Try Hunter S. Thompson. Put a gun, a beer, and maybe a joint behind him ;)

[Manchegan]

Thanks for the replies folks. Sorry I haven't checked back in a while. It's an iconic style drawing. I think Shakespeare would be too obvious, but I like the idea of using Hunter, especially for the delicious irony. Dante would be a good one, too...or Cervantes...

[Quarter Moon]

I've got to draw an icon in the early christian Byzantine style for an art appreciation class. I want to use an author for mine, but which would be best? I'm leaning toward Joyce, mostly because eyepatches are fun.

Any one else have any ideas? There has to be symbols of the person in the background (ex: Irish flag) so keep that in mind too.

Muchos gracias amigos

Use me as your famous Poet LOL Love Maureen

[Lokasenna]

Oscar Wilde would seem an obvious choice, as would Noel Coward (albeit to a lesser degree). Also, Marx and Nietzsche are instantly recognizable if you don't have to limit yourself to pure fiction.

[kelby_lake]

Antonin Artaud: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonin_Artaud

Famous for the Theatre of Cruelty and for being a heroin addict and lunatic.

[Taliesin]

This question has such a large variety of answers, all of which could be interesting, so I'll just give a few more:

Lord Byron(obviously), Neil Gaiman (he is called "the rock star" of nowadays literary world, you know), Max Stirner, (I just have a thing of drawings of him in this style (http://radicalacademy.com/stirner.jpg), granted, it might be difficult to iconize them) J.R.R.Tolkien (he is definitely an icon if you're fifteen), Mihhail Bulgakov (oh, to think of all the "Master&Margarita" references), Virginia Woolf (was mentioned before, but I wholeheartedly agree), Bertrand Russell (although he isn't strictly a writer), Franz Kafka (jsut thought of him, but I actually think that of this list, he would be one of the best to iconize- he looks a bit like his works, I think).

[WuWei]

Poe, Melville, Hemingway all had pretty recognizable and memorable faces. Granted, Poe has already been portrayed in art like a million times.

Laurence Sterne had an incredibly intersting face too.

If you were leaning towards something more modern and weird, Louis Ferdinand Céline should do the trick.

[Scheherazade]

The only ones I could think of are Oscar Wilde and Bernard Shaw...

[Katy North]

Oscar Wilde
Agree with James Joyce
Walt Whitman
Lord Byron
Keats
Milton
Dante
The Bard
CS Lewis
Jane Austen
Emily Dickinson

[mtpspur]

Charles Dickens--when icon was mentioned his name was the first one I thought of. Somewhat amazed no one else listed him.

[mal4mac]

Do you actually like Joyce's work? Is 'liking eyepatches' a good reason for deciding on your subject? When the teacher asks why you chose Joyce, in front of your classmates, are you going to say: 'I like eyepatches'. Deciding just to stick an Irish flag in the background is banal. A serious artist, at the very least, would read Dubliners, Portrait, Ulysses and and a good biography (Ellmann) and experiment with the imagery based on a deep knowledge of his art and life. Otherwise, why bother? If you haven't time to study Joyce, pick a writer you have read in some depth and know something about.