Inspired by Coraline
The Other Mother
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Coraline art prints
Neil Gaiman's Coraline (2002) is a children's book that frightens adults more than children. My Coraline prints come from the book, not any film. They are inspired by Gaiman's words, made with AI image tools and art-directed by me in the style of a stark old woodcut.
Prints from Coraline
The story behind the scene
Coraline finds a small door in her new flat that should open onto a brick wall. One day it doesn't. On the other side is a flat just like her own, and in its kitchen a woman who looks almost like her mother: taller, thinner, paper-white, with long restless fingers and black buttons where her eyes should be. She has made lunch. She is delighted to see Coraline. She would like her to stay forever. The Other Mother is so frightening because she is so warm, and that welcome is the moment I wanted on the wall. I gave it the look of a black woodcut with one colour only, the dark red of her fingernails, so the kindness in the picture feels as wrong as it does in the book.
The buttons, the key and the little door
Coraline is full of small objects that become frightening. There is the big black key and the little door that should open onto bricks. There are the black buttons the Other Mother sews on for eyes, and offers to sew onto Coraline's. There is the stone with a hole in it, a gift from her neighbours, for looking through to see what is real. And there is the snow globe on the mantelpiece, which turns out to matter more than it seems. My print keeps only the Other Mother herself, and the warmth that makes her so wrong.
Gifts for Coraline fans
For the reader who still checks small doors, the friend whose shelves lean gothic, or anyone who grew up with the story and never quite got over the buttons. It makes a strong Halloween gift. Unframed A4 prints start at £19.99, with free delivery to the UK and US.
Questions
- Who is the Other Mother in Coraline?
- In Neil Gaiman's novel she is the creature on the other side of the little door. She copies Coraline's real mother, with buttons for eyes, and tries to keep Coraline with her forever.
- Is this print from the Coraline film?
- No. It is an inspired-by print based on the novel, and nothing in it is taken from any film.
- How is it made?
- I create each scene with AI image tools, then art-direct and refine it in the style of a woodcut. It is printed to order on archival matte paper, unframed or framed.
- Why does the Other Mother have button eyes?
- In the book, buttons for eyes are the mark of everything in the other world she has made, and she wants Coraline to accept them too, so that she can stay forever.
- Is Coraline a horror story?
- It is a dark fairy tale written for children, and many adults find it more frightening than children do.
From the journal
- 11 gothic novels to read this HalloweenOctober is the month for the books that creak.
- Dracula in Whitby: the real places behind the novelEveryone remembers Transylvania, but the most frightening chapters of Dracula happen on the Yorkshire coast.
- Boo basket ideas for book loversA boo basket is a little Halloween gift basket of treats for someone you love, the spooky cousin of an Easter basket.
- Black Shuck and the real legends behind The Hound of the BaskervillesBritain is full of phantom black dogs, and Arthur Conan Doyle borrowed the best of them for his most famous Sherlock Holmes story.