I didn't know how many of the stories would be appropriate for the drawing, but every single one was so visual and compelling I ended up with too many! His work is incredibly immersive; it was wonderful spending so much time studying it. In my notes I included as much visual information as possible, then used it to guide me in the design of the house.

Poe begins The Fall of the House of Usher with a long, moody description of the building, so it only made sense to use the Usher house as a base for the mansion. I studied elements of gothic architecture - lots of turrets and domes and porches and overhangs - and incorporated my favorites into the sketch. I thought inventing a fictional building would be easier than drawing a real one from blueprints like Murder Castle, but it was actually more challenging to make one up. However, one great thing about this style of architecture is that it allows for a completely weird structure (most houses from this period are kind of a hodge-podge) so I could put welrdly-shaped rooms wherever I wanted!