JUMBO FAIRY TALE

Fairy Tale

18" x 24" Mixed Media Drawing on Antique Parchment

This drawing has been in my head for months.  I knew I wanted to challenge myself to create a jumbo sized drawing on a digitized dictionary page and I knew I wanted to attempt to use images from some of my favorite, childhood fairy tales....here is the result.

It's a busy piece with lots to look at..."There's a lot going on" is the phrase I hear used to describe artwork like this.  Because the surface is so large, it permitted me to draw a lot of stuff.  There were also lots of challenges.

I worked on this piece off and on in my classroom with my students watching.  Many of them had no fairy tale references outside of Disney movies.  I explained to them that the Brother's Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson were my favorite fairy tale story tellers.  These images came out of my head and were born a long time ago when I was a child.  It took quite a bit of effort to let them pop out of those memories and not be influenced from other images around me.

Because the text on the page already creates a busy space it is a trick to arrange my characters.  I deliberately want specific words to show through.  I also don't care a bit about the proportions from one image as it relates to the other.  The Nightingale's cage (I LOVE that story) can be big and the Princess and the Pea's bed can be small....it doesn't matter.  It's kinda like they are all spinning around in my head anyway.

I have a frame waiting for this drawing and plan to feature it in my booth this week in Albuquerque.  I'm going to have a pretty hefty price tag on it since it is so big and I'm terribly attached to it.  I put quite a bit of my heart into this piece and I'm fine if it comes home and lives with me for awhile. I also don't know if I'll have print available of it since it doesn't translate well much smaller.

I love a big challenge and it feels so good to enjoy the finished drawing.  Unfortunately I thought up about a dozen other pieces I'd like to do large.  It's like a disease or chocolate - I just can't stop myself.

Here are some close-ups