A Turnip from 2011

It's the Circle of Life?

Here's a little something from around February or March of last year: a few little studies in gouache and pencil on The Enormous Turnip. I actually meant to post it here quite some time ago, but it got lost amongst all sorts of new things that I kept churning out. I have included the entire page I was working on in addition to the main highlights as separate images.

I will naturally admit that I didn't get very far with the whole thing, but I did have a clear vision of the story in my head and where I would have gone with it. As with many other fairy tales and fables, The Enormous Turnip is so flexible that it can be easily adapted and changed without losing much of the plot and significance of the original, standardised version. The original story is Russian in origin, but most contemporary illustrated versions don't tend to envision it as such. I too decided against the Russian peasant setting, and instead envisioned the story as taking place in a Victorian walled garden somewhere in late-19th/early-20th century rural England. I think I even drew a fuller picture of the old man, in which he was definitely wearing clothes typical of the era.

Toad of Toad Hall

Not much more than a study, but here's a quick little sketch of the wayward protagonist from Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. A story like The Wind in the Willows is easier to visualise than some comparable works, as it arguably doesn't have a set of definitive set of illustrations associated with it as the likes of Alice in Wonderland or Roald Dahl's books do (though I think it is worth saying that E.H. Shepard's illustrations are classic).

The Sadness of Birthday Bear

When Young Holly encountered Birthday Bear

The poor old teddy was in such despair.

"Come," said the girl,  handing him a sweet pea,

"Why all the tears? Why be melancholy?"

"Alas," said the bear, "'Tis a namesake curse!

"A grave malady that only gets worse!

"I long for my birthday most days of the year,

"But I weep and I wail when it gets here.

"You see, I'm reminded, like I'm Macbeth,

"That each day I'm ageing, closer to death."

The Afternoon of a Faun

Insomnia

Insomnia...something I only know too well.

Grim Lairy Tales