A real case

Kindles are fun and convenient, and I own one that has a nice robust black leather case.  I suppose I could custom paint the case but I am content with it as it is.  What would I paint on it?  Which character would please me?  I could do it with someone else's case if I knew what was wanted and in fact various web sites have started up to accommodate the case market, and some very odd images they have on some of them too.  I immediately felt that a reader would want a character or location from a favourite novel on their case.

This would be easy with older books that were out of copyright, and I looked at some of these sites hoping to contribute.  But the one I thought I might have a go with either went out of business or stopped the 'artist designed case', and went down the DIY route.  Hmmm, slippery ground.  The work I had been doing for them is still on my hard drive.  Again, it's character driven and illustrates old novels.  I recently read 'The Pickwick Papers', not, I have to admit, expecting to enjoy it - but found it to be brilliant stuff, charming, amusing and inventive from beginning to end.  So I promptly did two designs based on this novel.

'Let me tell the defendant Pickwick, if he is in court, which I am informed that he is, that it would have been more decent, more becoming, and in better taste, if he had kept away!'

I had seen the very underrated British film based on the novel, made about 1952, and this may have helped my appreciation of the book.  This is rare of films that usually fall very short of the book, but as the film has high production values and relies on Dickens' dialogue for its script pretty extensively; the finished product reflects the book pretty dam well.  It cuts out a few characters, but this doesn't harm the story such as it is, because the plot is fairly trivial, its one of those books that rely on verve, wit and charm to power you through to a feel-good end. 

The film chooses the cast well, making sure they realy resemble George Cruikshanks illustrations, using costume, hairstyles and lighting to great effect.  Donald Wolfit, an actor much derided over the years, was born to play the lawyer Mr Sergeant Buzfuz, he does an excellent job, and I had him in mind when I drew the character, with some of Buzfuz' speech included.  This image was designed around a case template supplied by the company I mentioned, and its their 'box' shape I had to design within.  I'd like to show the case as well, but I'd better not.  I've drawn a line around the case so you can see where it is.

The other Pickwick design I drew was of Sam Weller, and I chose the moment that Pickwick and his companions first meet Sam outside a hotel, where he is blacking boots and shoes.  Again, I would include dialogue from the book.

'You're a wag aint you?' - 'My eldest brother was troubled with that complaint', said Sam, 'Maybe its catching, I used to sleep with him.'

Lastly, Dracula, everbody's favourite vampire, and I obviously wanted a dark and brooding look for the image.  I've always liked a passage early in the novel where Dracula is describing to Jonathan Harker just what incredibly great nobles his ancestors really are!  He goes through a speech where he refers to 'mushroom growths' like the Hapsburg's and Romonov's, and how the Dracula's make them all look dog rough.  Then he finishes with a brooding but almost self- pitying line - 'I like the shade and the shadow, and would be alone with my thoughts when I may.'

'I love the shade and the shadow, and would be alone with my thoughts when I may.'

But the image is the thing, and I suppose the dialogue could be changed a hundred times over.  Will I actually put these designs up at any time?  Maybe on Zazzle, but they were not designed for their range of cases and I don't think they do any for Kindle - I'll check of course but in the meantime I'll keep investigating.

Implounge

Zazzle 

Gods and Monsters: Developing an idea 3.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mharrsch/   Mary Harrsch – photo of Ba bird.

 Like politicians in some failing political party that is slightly past its ‘sell by’ date, the Egyptian gods were represented by some pretty odd and wacky characters.  Some, Frankenstein like, were made from bits and bobs of animals and humans like Ammit who I mentioned last week.  Go on, you know you’ve voted for someone like that in the past.

Looking pretty strange was an obvious occupational challenge for the rulers of the afterlife, and there were lots of mysterious denizens of the Egyptian pantheon that I could choose to illustrate.  There is Sobek, a crocodile headed god, and Horus a deity in the shape of a falcon.  There was a hippopotamus headed goddess named Taweret, the goddess of childbirth, and Bes, a distinctly weird looking gentleman – chunky in build, entirely blue and with a lion’s mane.

When an Egyptian died, a number of different spirits were supposedly released, among them the Ka, the Akh and the Ba.  They all have different powers and represent aspects of the deceased; the Akh for instance represented their immortality, while the Ka was their life force or genius.  The Ba represented their character, the things that made them what they were, and is represented by a human headed bird, with human arms.  In Book Of The Dead manuscripts these Ba birds along with the other spirits are seen present at a funeral hovering near the deceased while they carry through various duties, saying prayers and spells, worshipping, and waiting for their moment to re-enter the corpse.

Ba’s were also able to re-visit our world in a variety of forms.  Recalling Anubis and his weighing of the heart, the Ba was also the poor unfortunate that had to witness this important procedure, no doubt biting its nails (remember, its got hands) as to the result.  They look cool and elegant in the manuscripts, and I might have a try at illustrating one.

 

Bast scribbles.  Left Bast examines the world - right, Bast preying.

But using Bast as my first project, I wanted to do a larger study of the head and settle on another pleasing (to me anyway) position for the arms and hands.  First I used the previous approach, black with blue outline, which I was happy with, but then using the same drawing (always on a separate layer from everything else) I gave the image colour.

I felt that the colour range that I could use should be reflected by actual animals (So green was mostly out – after all it’s a cat I’m painting not a parrot) and blue outlines notwithstanding, a reddish yellow colour set seemed the most appropriate.

 

Bast scribbles.  Figuring out posture and positioning of limbs.

Using two or three colours allows for light and shade to be applied, and therefore modelling of the surface.  So the result is a more round and three-dimensional form, but it can still be kept straightforward and simple.  The strong highlights are blended together, but have been deliberately placed fairly roughly onto the figures for a sense of spontaneity.  I colour the eye separately as I have done with all the images up to now, as the eye is a focal point in the design, always an important object in the depiction of any face.

 

Finished designs with different body postures.

That might seem an obvious thing to say, as if I were going to then say that the nose or lips were not really that important and could be left out of any portrait to save time.  I suppose its part of the design stage; the artist decides how a feature is represented, from what angle it will be seen, and how well defined the feature is.  It is possible to paint a face and have the eye be the first thing anyone sees.  Design and composition can be complex.

Bast designs comparing colours.

 Next I take the character of Anubis, and carry through a similar process, a different position of head arms and hands, this time he his holding some small jars instead of scales.  I think this new position shows him of as a jackal better than my first, he has slightly bigger ears and a longer snout, his head being almost in profile.  I’ve also given him and Bast more realistic body shapes; here he has a neck, shoulders and a tapering waist, but, as with Bast, I’ve made the design decision to leave the arms fairly ‘boneless’ so they can make fluid curving shapes around the body. 

Anubis designs colour comparison.

Here are some more design scribbles for an image of Sobek the crocodile headed god I 

Sobek scribbles.  I chose the one on the right to develop further.

 mentioned above.  Next week I will talk about this design and also experiment with CYMK colour.  As all these designs will to be printed by the print on demand company Zazzle, then this colour type becomes important, as it can affect the colours put down digitally using a RGB palette.  And so, until next week.