Marcus Stone

I don't know if you've noticed, but there are a lot of pictures of OMF characters at YSP right now. They're in your script (Act 1, scene 1, for instance). They're sitting on the ground, blown up to large sizes and framed. And Imany of them will be gracing our program at performance time.



If you're like me (which I'm sure none of you are--I'm a total geek) you probably looked at these illustrations and said, "Who made these? How were they made? Did Dickens commission them?" So, being a total geek, I went and researched some answers.

These drawings were made by a man named Marcus Stone. Marcus Stone was an engraver: he carved sketches onto wood blocks, which would then be transferred to copper plates, and finally printed in the newspapers that Dickens' novels first appeared in. Stone was a long-time friend of Dickens and his illustrator for almost a decade. (They were friends from Stone's childhood: when the artist was 12 years old, Dickens saw a sketch that Stone had done of Jo from Bleak House, and liked it so much that the novelist showed it to his publisher).

Most people from Dickens' time did not like Stone's illustrations. They preferred the silly, cartoonish style of Dickens' first illustrator, Phiz, to Stone's darker, more realistic style. However, Dickens himself preferred Stone's illustrations to Phiz's. This might be because Dickens' literary style was becoming more darker and more serious--and more like Stone's drawing style.

Personally, I like Stone's illustrations, and the darker and weirder the scene, the better. This one of Johnny's death is one of my favorites:Don't you feel like that fireplace is about to swallow Betty Higden up?
(You can see the complete set of Stone's OMF illustrations here).

One of the coolest things about Stone's illustrations is that Dickens himself helped with them. He gave Stone notes about character, clothing, and facial expression. So Stone's pictures are what DICKENS HIMSELF thought your character looked like.

Below is Stone's picture of Bradley Headstone. If I start writhing on the ground like a maniac during rehearsal, you'll know why.