IF - hibernating

 

The first thing that came to my mind for 'hibernating' was a polar bear, just because I love them. But apart from the fact that I don't think polar bears are hibernating at all (living in the everlasting winter of the Arctic), this seemed to 'wintery' an interpretation for the present season. So instead I chose some fruit and seeds people and animals are gathering for winter. And of course some fallen leaves, too.

The night sky is again part of my project 'The Golden Hero Dragan', all the other items have already appeared in a different context. I newly arranged them to fit this topic.

As you may have noticed, I have been kind of hibernating myself recently because of my current project of the fairy tale. It turned out to be more time-consuming as I assumed it to be, and I am afraid this may last a bit more. So I hope you will be patient with my hibernating and look forward to the finished book which, of course, I will show to you here on my blog.

IF - boundaries

This is about boundaries in drawing (lines to separate different items) as well as in reality: people/artists are separated by living on different continents. By overcoming these boundaries and joining their efforts they are making the world more colourful.

Thanks to Linda Hensley who came up with this wonderful idea of artistic collaboration during our online conversation.

IF - mysterious

For this week's topic 'mysterious' I chose again an illustration for my current project of the fairy tale "Dragan The Golden Hero".

The above scene circles around a stay with the brother of the hero (who is a magic smith) during which he teaches him his arts. These arts are somewhat mysterious and may include alchemy, astronomie and healing. Hence this seemingly mysterious display of items.

IF- swell

"Some days you must learn a great deal. But you should also have days when you allow what is already in you to swell up and touch everything. If you never let that happen, then you just accumulate facts, and they begin to rattle around inside of you."

E.L. Konigsburg

Reading of "swell" as the new topic let me instantly think of a blowfish. But only the quotation that came along with it gave me the idea of a blowfish who was rattling around in his small illustration (or rather the illustration is rattling around the poor fish) and then blew up because he was so scared. In this case it's actually a porcupine pufferfish which doesn't really come in red, but it just had to be this color.

IF - imperfect

These - imperfect - leaves are taken from an illustration for my current work upon the Rumanian fairy tale "Dragan the Golden Hero".
In fact they are only a very small part of it and won't really show at all in the final illustration because it's night.

Unfortunately the exhibition I told you about in my last post will only take place in January - February 2012 instead of September - October this year, due to human imperfection: the responsible librarian forgot to note down her promise to show my exhibiton then, and has already organized another artist to be shown. I was completely dumbstruck, when I heard this, but by now I have reconciled with the idea and indeed prefer the later deadline, because it allows me to finish the whole book including cover and let it be printed, so that I can even sell it right then.

If - perennial

As I am still very busy preparing my exhibition in September, which will show illustrations for a fairy tale, I did not think I could post anything this week.

But thanks to Susan Sorell Hill who, in her post, refers to fairy tales as perennial stories that deal with the Journey of Life, I decided to give you a glimpse into my fairy tale with the above illustration. Here the brother of the hero desperately wants to eat after a long struggle and the task both he and the hero had to face seemingly completed by now. But he doesn't know that these tempting pears are not what they seem to be...

IF -stay

"Life opens up opportunities to you, and you either take them or you stay afraid of taking them."

Jim Carrey

To illustrate this quotation, I dug up a gloomy series of photographs I did directly after the end of my study.

 

I leave it to you, whether you want to ignore the last picture for a happier ending.