Development work: Sigils

 After reading up on the story of King Saul, I became interested in the idea of presenting mental illness through religious imagery. In the book of Samuel it describes Saul being driven mad by an evil spirit, so I started to look into occult imagery of figures like Baphomet; a figure first drawn by Eliphas Levi, a French Occult author in the mid 19th century. This image, originally called "the sabbatic goat" has since been popularly associated with ideas of demons and Satan.

digital sketch

I wanted to include other references to Eliphas Levi's work; a lot of his drawings were presented as sigils and diagrams, combining this structure with some more decorative touches could be quite pleasing. 

I created a small sigil out of scraps of cardboard and masking tape to experiment with how this imagery could be brought into a different medium.