BEING GREEDY CHOKES ANANSI From Favorite Folktales around the world by Jane Yolen. One time, Anansi lived in a country that had a queen who was also a witch. And she decreed that whoever used the word five would fall down dead, because that was her secret name, and she didn’t want anyone using it. Now, Buh Anansi was a clever fellow, and a hungry one too. Things were especially bad because there was a famine, so Anansi made a little house for himself by the side of the river near where everyone came to get water. And when anybody came to get water, he would call out to them, “I beg you to tell me how many yam hills I have here. I can’t count very well.” So, one by one he thought they would come up and say, “One, two, three, four, five,” and they would fall down dead. Then Anansi would take them and corn them in his barrel and eat them, and that way he would have lots of food in hungry times and in times of plenty.
I feel only positive emotions after drawing this landscape.
It's a bit wintery, snowy, and magical.
I love the background texture. But I still need to work on the details.
Recently, I discovered the miraculous power of gouache. I ordered paints a few days ago (still waiting for the shipment). That's why there are only digital versions for now.
I have already purchased a course on the Domestika platform. I'm going to try my skills at traditional painting on paper. It will be a big challenge. Fortunately, I have a great teacher :) Thanks, Ruth Wilshaw, for your Domestika course and daily inspiration to create!
Day 6 of #whimsicalByMamaminia art challenge.
I'm working on details and silhouettes.
It's the first concept of illustration with a lantern. I'm going to do more in that style with even more details.
Redrawing finished works is an excellent opportunity to develop skills and see progress.
Have a lovely Wednesday!
THE LITTLE OLD WOMAN WITH FIVE COWS
From Favorite Folktales from Around the World by Jane Yolen.
One morning a little old woman got up and went to the field containing her five cows. She took from the earth a herb with five sprouts and, without breaking either root or branch, carried it home and wrapped it in a blanket and placed it on her pillow. Then she went out again and sat down to milk her cows.
Suddenly she heard tambourine bells jingle and scissors fall, on account of which noise she upset the milk. Having run home and looked, she found that the plant was uninjured. Again she issued forth to milk the cows, and again thought she heard the tambourine bells jingle and scissors fall, and once more she spilled her milk.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CnnCvkZpxW0/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
The symbolic painting "Expectations" is filled in with both literal and metaphorical meanings. Time passes very quickly, but when we are waiting for something, it practically stands still. Expecting an event can be unbearably tiring, or it can be enjoyable. It all depends on the circumstances. And everyone can remember something similar. The girl depicted in the painting is possibly expecting a child, or perhaps some other event. She gently hugs the clock, a symbol of time, like the belly of a pregnant woman. This expectation reveals all her inner feelings, doubts, fears, and hopes associated with this event. Time drags on for an impossibly long period, so long that it seems to her that she has already grown old from this expectation. In the painting, the artist indicates this with the gray hair of a young girl. Despite the long wait, the girl smiles and hopes for the best. The artist used warm pastel colors of oil paints on canvas with gilding. The painting was created using clockwork to enhance the meaning. The artwork "Expectations" is part of a “Time” series of paintings with clocks.
Completed my first commission of the year — inspired by my Dream Tree mural in Bristol, for a couple from the neighbourhood who walk by the mural nearly every day
