Pinocchio/Peter Pan

I'm going to treat you to some studies I made at the end of January on two relatively similar stories - J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan and Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio. I say that they're similar because they are original fantasy stories heavily influenced by the genre of fairy tale; they deal with themes of childhood, growing up and responsibility; also, just as importantly, they were immortalised and popularised in Disney animation. I grew up with the Disney versions (Pinocchio is probably my favourite Disney film), yet I only read the original texts as an adult.

Tinkerbell is dying - Peter asks what can save her.

Peter Pan in flight

The drawings I've made here are illustrations of the original stories, rooted in Europe rather than American pop-culture. I've tried to detach myself from Disney's imagination-grabbing imagery, though I think I failed when it came to Pinocchio's hat and hair. They were really made as forms of experimentation using . My take on the Blue Fairy was to practice making line-drawings in coloured ink turned out (as opposed to the standard, permanent black Indian ink), while with the drawings of Peter Pan, I was practising my hand at drawing action shots of human figures.

Pinocchio and the Blue Fairy