The Island of Echoes, Part 1. Lost

Serialisation of a story created for Folktale Week 2023

This is the first part of story created using the Folktale Week¹ word prompts, the first of the prompts is Lost.²

This post was originally published in November 2023. I’ve made this post free for November 2024. If you enjoyed it, you support me by sharing it with others who might like it, leave a comment or click the 🩶

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Captain John William Beaufort was the only survivor of The Leviathan, a merchant ship transporting goods across the Atlantic. The journey was fraught with difficulties from the outset; first, half his crew succumbed to disease, and then the ship was caught in a ferocious storm, which sent The Leviathan off course and lost in the vast ocean. With the ship badly damaged and the stores of food and water almost completely run out, the remaining crew sadly succumbed to scurvy and dehydration.

Just when Captain Beaufort was certain no further ill could befall him, strong currents sent his ship into the jagged rocks off an island. The ship became wedged between the rocks, and with no crew to help Beaufort manoeuvre his way out, the Leviathan had to be abandoned. 

Taking as many provisions he could carry, Beaufort ventures out to the Island, on a makeshift raft of broken planks and sailcloth, in the desperate hope that he would find food, fresh water and perhaps civilisation.

But his spirit is further weakened by the discovery of an almost featureless, bleak terrain, flattened by the elements and with no apparent sign of human activity, except for circles of crooked standing stones and what looks like an ancient burial mound.

Sketch of the Leviathan

Materials used:

I used Schmincke Liquid Charcoal in Grape Seed Black, with a bit of black Faber Castell Polychromos pencil to sharpen up the detail

On the sketch of the ship, I used a little bit of white gouache to highlight the swirls in the sea.

Created in an A4 Pith Sketchbook.

Part 2. INK, coming next..

If you enjoyed this post you can buy me a coffee/pencil to say thank you 😊

The theme this month in The Creative Flock is Folktales, inspired by Folktale Week, an annual art and writing challenge on Instagram (see footnote 1).

If you would like to discover the inspiration and reference material for this story, I have posted about it here.

Thank you for reading! 😊

1. Folktale Week is a 7-day art and story writing challenge which takes place between 13-19th November on Instagram . It’s free to join and anyone can take part. 

Set up by a group of artists and illustrators who love folktales and visual storytelling, the seven different word prompts are released on the Folktale Week Instagram account in October so participants have time to create something in time for the week-long showcase in November. 

Even if you don’t take part, it's worth checking out the #folktaleweek hashtag, the challenge has a world-wide following and so much beautiful, inspiring work is shared

2. The word prompts for 2023 are Lost, Ink, Sea, Sleep, Underground, Illusion, Found.