The Shadow

Digital painting and photo texture.

I love the idea that the small rabbit has become terrified of his own shadow, failing to recognize his own projection. This is both literal and symbolic; the shadow self/unconscious, etc.

The shadow rabbit escapes with plans of his own, he has a purpose.

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weird girls conjuring things....

not sure about this one. 

may edit!

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Woodland Band

Digital drawing.

Second image is a screenshot of the work in progress: here you can see the individual, drawn parts in the background, ready to be arranged.

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Georgie

 

Oh the drama!

Georgie loves to make an exhibition of himself. Here we see him out and about (lives in glass cabinet generally and prefers to hibernate through the summer months), both with and without his head: a favourite trick. He loves to elicit sympathy, forever playing the victim, flirting with danger (be careful at the table's edge, Georgie!). He would have you believe that he's a friendless, forgotten old soul.... a misunderstood genius....a tortured romantic, clearly....but it's all just a ruse. Georgie has a penchant for the theatrical, for historical fashions, antique ladies undergarments and badly written poetry. He also loves to have his picture taken, regardless his repeated declarations about feeling objectified and how I deliberately seek to capture him from a 'bad' angle. However, he was kind enough to submit to these recent Snapseed photographs without too much reservation, on the condition that I included them in his very own vanity album. x

Fenn

Digital painting and photo textures.

A gathering of like-minds.

For Fairytales.

xxx

Dressing Room

Dressing Room

One of many versions in the works, can't quite decide upon the final piece, so may share several over the next week or so.

Privileged twins, expensive frocks and broken hearts. One devious, one stoic, of a fashion...x

More soon, I promise!

Into the Night

Into the Night/digital illustration

Kind of more in the mood for pattern, abstracts at the moment, so I am wondering whether I ought to have added the girl at all........may also share other variations on this theme.

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Number Thirteen

 Number Thirteen

Digital drawing/painting, except for the floorboards & scissors, which I took from a photograph.

What a jolly unseasonal offering!

Inspired by: Growing pains, adolescence, my own past (I turned thirteen on Friday the 13th), the X-Files, invisible siblings, Aimee Bender, Angela Carter, current dream symbols.

I like the idea of a room without walls in the sky. Could also represent a sort of diving board or gangplank...into the unknown. Maturation, or the close of childhood, the violence of an unplanned departure.

Best wishes for the holidays xxx

Estrella

 

Digital drawing for the Singing Tree series.

Quite a large canvas, so those individual blades of grass almost pushed me to the brink of insanity. I find digital line drawing to be quite a bit more difficult and time consuming than pencil drawing. I think that this is because the digital pen sort of glides across the tablet, so you don't seem to get as firm a purchase on it as you might with a pencil. Sometimes, when I begin a new Singing Tree picture I have to make sure that I'm in it for the long haul, haha. And so here we are. I love the pink and red tones. I've been wanting to create something with minimal tones for a while now, so I'm happy to have finally got stuck in. My most cherished element of all is the sky with its strange constellations.

The girl is supposed to be leaving home and attempting to 'move in with nature', which is central to the concept of the Singing Tree series over all. She discovers that nature might not be quite what she had imagined from the relative 'safety' of her comfortable human home. The size of the bird represents how vast this hitherto unknown world actually is to her - and I also like to imaine the bird as some sort of oracle which she is hoping to consult. Have a feeling he might be quite merciless though - and this goes on to remind me of the Erl King, which is a theme that I have been hoping to indulge in for years!

On the subject of the Erl King, for those of you who loved Angela Carter's version, you really must check out this contemporary collection of fairytales (I have featured it a dozen times before!), which features a new take on the Erl King story by the very wonderful Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum. I am reading the book oh so slowly (alongside three others, which is silly, I know), but have made my way through about three quarters of it so far - and not one story dissapoints. Here is the link to the Amazon UK version.

I may write more later, just so tired now and I didn't catch anywhere near enough sleep last night. Tomorrow evening I am supposed to be attending a psychic night with my friend at the local tavern. I don't wish to become involved, but am so intrigued by the whole thing. And tomorrow is the solstice...so make sure to be merry, and take care xxx

Individual pieces and parts :]

Secret Heart

Secret Heart, for the Imagined portraits series.

A few variations: Digital painting and collage.

Horrible hayfever and sinus problems at the moment. I still haven't quite got around to replacing the drawing tablet either: working with the damaged one is beginning to drive me a little bit crazy...it tends to fly off all over the place, tripling actions and skipping commands. Why don't I replace it? I'm not sure! I have been so caught up in 'real life' non-creative stuff recently (which has made for quite a pleasant change, admittedly) that I keep on putting it off. The works above were inspired (partly) by the movie 'Let The Right One In', also by Japanese/Korean ball jointed doll imagery...Dark Alice, the ghost stories of M.R James, terrifyingly self-possessed children! My favourite is the floating head, which was the initial 'rough' version before properly working into the face. I imagine her to have so much to tell, so many painful secrets that may never find expression in the waking world. Oh!

xxx