Fox & Hound

My third painting is comprised of two smaller portraits which reflect a playful take on the Mannix novel The Fox and the Hound.

I was attracted to this story because of its anthropomorphism, which is a central aspect of my most recent portraits, especially within this specific series. The Mannix story is incredibly sad and violent, while the Disney version is based on an entirely fantastic situation where Tod and Copper actually befriend each other. I decided to simply run with the idea of the two animals and the humanly characteristics they are often said to reflect in folklore and see how I could reinvent the characters in a new way. Foxes are commonly known to be cunning, adaptable, and determined. Hounds are loyal, affectionate, and protective of the ones they love.

I am trying to use my own images for my work more and more, so I wanted to use people I knew that were accessible enough to have personal photos of. I used my boyfriend Matt as the model for the Fox, and used myself as the Hound. While we never started out as bitter rivals or enemies as the animals are in the story, I find that our personalities often demonstrate the folkloric qualities of these animals. I am relatively happy with the way they turned out, and it was really fun to work with a new shape (round). This was the first time I've been able to manipulate the paint enough to let the wood grain show through, and it adds a nice, rustic feel to the two pieces. The forest background feels very flat, which doesn't bother me so much as the focus should be on the figures themselves. I might try to brush up the colors in the trees a bit.

The Woodsman and the Serpent.

For my third painting, I was going to do a modern, mixed-media take on the house from Hansel and Gretel. For time's sake, I am going to put this idea aside and focus on portraiture. The two paintings I've done for this study have both turned out to be deeply rooted in expressive portraiture --I'm thinking of Elizabeth Peyton as a strong, relevant source. Representation has turned out to be one of my bigger strengths in the work I create, and with Ferdinand I am slowly learning to depict subjects not only through the contour outlines I'm used to sketching out, but through various and unexpected colors. I got the opportunity to see the Impressionism show at the De Young this past weekend and it really fueled me to use color as liquid emotion for these characters.

I was looking through fables to use for my next piece, and I came across The Woodsman and the Serpent.

One wintry day a Woodsman was tramping home from his work when he saw something black lying on the snow. When he came closer he saw it was a Serpent to all appearance dead.
But he took it up and put it in his bosom to warm while he hurried home.
As soon as he got indoors he put the Serpent down on the hearth before the fire. The children watched it and saw it slowly come to life again. Then one of them stooped down to stroke it, but thc Serpent raised its head and put out its fangs and was about to sting the child to death.
So the Woodsman seized his axe, and with one stroke cut the Serpent in two. "Ah," said he, "there is no gratitude from the wicked."

The "Woodsman" is a pivotal character in many of these strange stories. He is often times a short apparition in the midst of someone else's story (Red Riding Hood, for instance), and his role is minute (kill the wolf). I found the focus on the Woodsman himself intriguing, as if I was getting to read Harry Potter from Dumbledore's perspective (end nerdiness). The woodsman's effort to save the snake is a deeply romantic and resonant gesture. This tale is completely anthropomorphic to me. I'm visualizing a split portrait of the woodsman and the serpent, whom I will turn into a woman. I'm still brainstorming as to how to keep this from becoming the cover of a trashy fantasy-erotica-romance book.

Instead of doing my usual animal headdress-beanies, I think I'm going to go out on a limb and actually try to morph human and serpent into one hybrid creature. The woman will be, for all purposes, a fully-functioning female, with snake scales showing in some parts (she might even be pulling some skin off to reveal the scales underneath).

One of the boys

Ferdinand is coming, slowly but surely.

Ferdinand, in progress.

Officially started my Ferdinand-themed painting this week. It feels nice to get back into portraiture with a set theme and idea in mind.

With each painting I do, I realize more and more what I need to improve on and what I need to focus more on. For this painting, I'm making an active effort to really push the palette and work some blues and crimsons into the flesh tones. While I am incorporating some of the elements of my drawings into this painting (cartoonish animal-headresses, whimsical composition), I want to reflect a stark difference in dimension between the two mediums. My drawings are very flat, with primary attention to contour lines and minor shading. My paintings are a thorough study of the shadows, highlights, and other tones that add a more emotional, intimate punch to these characters. I aim to reflect much depth in my treatment of these portraits.

For an additional exercise, I think I'm going to draw some smaller scenes of fights between 3 of the 4 boys in the painting (Ferdinand excluded). I might try out gouache or stick to watercolor, with outlining in micron pen. This will be a good way to get me reacquainted with figure drawing, as the source imagery I'm using only shows one pose for the four boys. I find that I rely and replicate my source imagery too much to a point where it's almost a direct attempt at copying the exact posture and expression of the person in the photo. I want to use my skills at representation while remaining spontaneous and inventive. I think I need to draw from life more often to keep myself on my game.

This is my second sketch for the second painting in the Fables/Folklore series. This one will be loosely based on Munro Leaf's "Ferdinand the Bull," which is one of my favorite children's stories.

The theme of this painting will be a more humanistic personification of the themes and lessons involved in the story. I am interested in the question of gender definition--in this painting, specifically how boys are STILL typified by masculinity from such a young age, even now in present day. I will employ my skills in portraiture this time with a clear intention in mind, unlike Little Red, which just sort of conveniently "happened." I feel very positive about getting started on this painting and hope to have it well under way by this weekend.

I'm finding that I'm more attracted to reflecting a concern with the intimate and personal qualities of the characters I'm recreating, rather than a focus on political and worldly issues. This being said, Hansel and Gretel is not coming so easily. I am apprehensive about working with mixed media, especially since I'm not quite sure how to create this house of books. I have gathered some materials from SCRAP to play around with and will make 3-4 rough studies of the house on Saturday.

Ferdinand/ilu & ilu2.

This is a sketch of one of the rowdy boys for the Ferdinand painting. I added one of my trademark animal headdresses to him after I scanned the sketch at this stage, turning him into the feral bear of the group. I am debating what the age of the boys in the painting should be...I think 10-12 year olds would be a good source for the theme of the work, but I'm drawn to younger boys as well.



This is an assignment for Painting 2. The focus is limitation of the colors in our palette. We are limited to 9, but I decided to take it far by only using color in the water that surrounds the houses. I am figuring out things like placement and form as I go, which is not always the best approach, but as a painter it's the most common one to stick with. After taking a short hiatus from oil painting, I'm feeling refreshed and ready to come back to it. It feels good to directly integrate my pen drawings into this oil setting. I'm anxious to see how the final product turns out. I'm hoping for a good response during critique.

I will be going to SCRAP tomorrow to pick up materials to start making studies for my hansel/gretel book house. I am hoping that the gathering of materials will help to form a mental composition for the piece. I have a feeling that I'm going to want to do something similar to the ilu/ilu2 painting in the sense that I'll be combining media in a sharp, direct way. The eye will jump off the edge of the found materials to the painted oil landscape that surrounds the sculpture. I can already tell that this painting will take a lot of trial and error.

Getting back to the drawing board.

For my second and third paintings, I'll be using the Grimms' Hansel and Gretel and Munro Leaf's "Ferdinand."


My preliminary idea for the Hansel and Gretel painting is to completely rework a major element of the story. In the tale, the children seek solace in a cottage made completely of candy and chocolate. My idea is to transform the candy house into a house of discarded books. The symbolism behind this lies in the current budget crisis affecting the country--more locally, the CSU budget.


hansel and gretel, illustrated by jen corace

I am still figuring out what media would best suit this project. The idea of painting every individual book sounds pretty painstaking, and not in a way that I think would truly add to the overall work. As of right now, I'm thinking that I will paint everything in the landscape in oil and construct the house out of ink drawings, found pages, and cutouts that I will cut and form into the panels of a house. In creating the house out of various textures, I would hope to reflect a theme of the loss of materiality as well as access to educational resources.



this is similar to the composition i'm thinking of for this piece.

The idea of juxtaposing my graphic style directly into my oily representational one intrigues me. My aim is to start integrating my painting and sketching styles into one organized system that I can stick to. I am admittedly struggling with trying to remain cohesive and committed to my ideas, and I am pretty sure that these ideas will have to be drafted out several times before I figure out something successful. This painting isn't coming as easily to me as Little Red did, but I think that means I'm doing something right.

Another important aspect of this painting is that I don't plan to have any figures in the composition at all. This will be an interesting switch for me.

I plan to go to SCRAP, Goodwill, and other thrift stores on Monday to pick up material to start testing out my ideas.

***

Ferdinand is very much in the mental/preliminary stage. I absolutely love this tale. So much, in fact, that I don't think I'd need to modernize or torque any elements of the story at all. I want to bring back my exploration of human nature vs. animal nature (represented through animal headdresses, which is a surprisingly common symbol in local illustration these days. Here are some examples/inspirational works that have guided me towards my animal/portrait combos.)


charmaine olivia

jen corace




I imagine a panoramic panel of 3-4 boys, obviously friends, who are facing front and showing off their scuffed faces. Maybe a black eye or two. You know how boys are. I'd want to have little Ferdinand set off a bit from the other boys, possibly turning away slightly, but not enough to completely hide his face from view. The other boys' headdresses would represent more feral creatures with bright, saturated fur colors, while Ferdinand's bull will have a soft, sensitive expression and will be more muted in hue and value.


carson ellis

I will put up drafts and sketches of these ideas as soon as I create them!