Another three in one catch up post today… A castle, an apple and a comb. Classic fairytale fare.
The first one is a bit of a doodle which I did at work on Tuesday. The castle that lies east of the sun and west of the moon – the heroine has to ride all four of the winds to get there you know. She’s pretty hardcore.
Day 14 - the evil queen's castle
Then we have a golden apple, given to the girl by an old lady for no very good reason. There are three old ladies and three fairly disparate golden items they bestow upon her – they’re sort of like a low rent Q from the James Bond movies.
Day 15 - a golden apple
According to the story, which I did not refer to until after drawing this, it was meant to be a golden carding comb rather than a hair one… oops.
After I requested help with drawing the wind t’other day, Bridget wrote: “You could pick color palettes based on the types of settings those winds would be found in — a gentle breeze might have a tropical, warm blue; harsh winter winds are silver and pale blue; the heavy winds that bring in the often-stagnant spring storms clouds are heavy and purple, charcoal or black, whereas the the sleepy winds that push around those brief summer torrents are heavy but perhaps dappled with the oranges and purples that trail behind them in the skies.”
I decided to muck about with this and had a vague notion of using pastelly watercolours and then inking some blowing stuff (leaves, brollies, general detritus) over the top. Twas then I discovered my tin of watercolour crayons (you draw on the page as you would with a normal crayon then get a paintbrush and some water and turn it into paint) and it all got a bit more multimedia than that.
Day 8 - East of the Sun and West of the Moon
The background was done and the sun and the moon fingerknitted during Masterchef last night, and the white bear finger puppet (who is a bear, not a seal as some detractors would have you believe) was normal knitted during 10 o’clock live. Just to give you a rough idea of how long this took, as some people are posting that sort of information on the Facebook page…
Day 9 - The Journey
This one is the pretty young daughter journeying east of the sun and west of the moon. Although it looks more like the way you used to draw birds as a kid. Anyone..? Oh, never mind. It’s mostly the watercolour crayons again, but the stars and cloud patches are expertly rendered in chalk pastel. LAWL.
I thought I’d experiment with a few character sketches from the play. First on the list is ‘A kind but poor gentleman’. I’m not sure exactly how old he is, or whether he wears a hat… So I drew a couple of kind men. In hats. Hats make the gentleman, probably. I imagine him sort of shabby but refined although that patently doesn’t come over in either of these, they both appear quite well to do. OH WELL. This is why we do research.
As discussed, this month I am going to do the 28 Days Later Drawing Challenge. I am posting the pictures here too because there is a literary theme – I am doing a series of images as research for a new theatre company called Inglenook, who are debuting a kids show called East of the Sun and West of the Moon at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Image the first is an inglenook, or old fashioned fireplace – because they’re going to need a logo at some point. I thought drawing this might help me think of an idea for one, but no joy so far. I mainly just feel the need for some better pencils. And shame that I haven’t drawn without the aid of a graphic tablet in months.
Anyway, if you want to see what other people are doing this month, or even join in, you should ‘like’ the Facebook page. I would highly recommend you do as well, there are already loads of brilliant pictures on there.
12 Books in 12 Months 