Saturday, January 26, 2008

Tales and Legends


For this week's Illustration Friday word(s), Tales and Legends, my thoughts immediately went to one of my favorite fairytales - the story about a mean stepmother married to an oblivious king. She banishes the princess and turns all the princes into swans. It becomes the task of the princess to turn the swan brothers back into people brothers.

Here's just a bit from The Wild Swans, by Hans Christian Andersen. "But however quietly its white glassy surface rested, there was still a motion on the shore, as its waves rose and fell like the breast of a sleeping child. When the sun was about to set, Eliza saw eleven white swans with golden crowns on their heads, flying towards the land, one behind the other, like a long white ribbon. Then Eliza went down the slope from the shore, and hid herself behind the bushes. The swans alighted quite close to her and flapped their great white wings. As soon as the sun had disappeared under the water, the feathers of the swans fell off, and eleven beautiful princes, Eliza’s brothers, stood near her."

When I was looking up the story, it seems there are many versions of the tale, titles and details - as well as a variety of numbers of brothers - 7? 11? I still love it and... it rekindled a desire to illustrate the whole story. So...that could be a good project.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Plain

For this week's word, 'plain', my thoughts went to the Amish, who are the 'plain' people. This girl is having a little trouble with the 'plain' part.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Stitch

To illustrate stitch, stitching...thinking sewing, thinking stitching wounds, thinking about NOT illustrating real wounds but still showing repair. So...perhaps the great unknown stitching up a wound in the world.

Saturday, January 5, 2008

100%

I was having trouble thinking of a concept for 100%.....kept thinking of 100% pure 'something'. So, it became 100% pure color-no shades, no gradients-had to push aside my painterly leanings.