The Red Shoes

! The following pictures are under a Copyright, you are not allowed to use them in anyway

In September I took part in Silent-Lands’s photo book project on Andersen’s tale The Red Shoes.

The Red Shoes by Silent-Lands

It was amazing to work with such a creative and efficient people! Silent-Lands is really talented as a photographer and as a director; the project came out lovely, scary and amazing, every detail meaning, even getting a rare honor mention.
My duty was as a tale assistant, taking care of Karen’s makeup and hair (I never thought that my drawing skills would be put into that use) and old lady’s lap model. The Shoemaker is a pro dancer while the girl playing Karen just did a bit of dancing when she was a child (she did a big effort there).


Silent-Lands , has not yet uploaded all the pics she’s planning to at the Internet, I’m going to put a few here, but you can see more of them and bigger in her gallery here: The red Shoes .
The book binding, fully handcrafted by Silent-Lands, is also worth to see so I hope she submits the pics of it too soon.

The Shomaker tempts Karen

A red as deep as blood’s

Maniac Dance

Maniac Dance 2

An end

The Red Shoes belong to Hans Christian Andersen.
This pictures © The Red Shoes, all rights reserved.

Rowan Character Study

Hello everyone!

I’m afraid that my next fairy tale drawing will have to wait a little more bit. I have a few of them almost done but I haven’t had the time to finish them properly (if you are following the news you already know why). But I’m bringing you something else instead:

This is SacredBliss' character, Rowan; a modern day witch who gets involved into some really curious events. SB asked me for a sketch level character study of the character done from the description she gave me of Rowan’s main characteristics and attributes. Since SB was in the middle of an art-block I tried to make it as suggestive as I could.




Some comments you may find interesting:

* Face.
Rowan is described as immersed in a Celtic-like atmosphere but her physical constitution and features are not properly Celt (ethnotype), so I tried to portray the mixture a bit. I gave her firm factions, a slightly prominent chin and straight eyebrows to show her temper and determination. Her sharp eyes are to suggest a sharpest kind of sight. She has warm lips because deep down she’s a heartily person, but portrayed in a slightly sided smile to give away her sarcastic sense of humour. Her small nose, in contrast with her bone structure, is a typical Celtic feature. I was going to include some freckles on her checks at first but changed my mind after colouring her hair (it is unlikely to find such a dark shade of red with natural pale-freckled skins).

*Hair.
I wanted it kind of short and with a modern cut, so her modern origins would be made obvious in any circumstance.

*The mirror.
It tries to suggest a door and, so, it lacks of down frame. At first I thought about making it more gothic like, but I decided to keep it purely Celtic and fill it with Pictish knotwork (I took inspiration on the Book of Kells); I also emphasized its dangerous quality by putting some threshold guardians on it.
I wanted it to be green because it is a dual colour that often means transit (of ways, between good and evil, safe and danger …); in accordance to this, it is a colour related to nature (matching Rowan’s powers) and it’s a meaningful colour in the Celtic iconography. It is also a lovely colour for eerie glows, and that’s why the top frame and the bottom of the side ones are a bit lighter, suggesting it might begin to glow at any moment. It’s also filled with glittery ink (as well as the arrow head pendant and the dress), but you can see that in the screen.

*The sword in the mirror is a version of one of William Wallace’s. It’s not really a Celtic sword, but good enough to suggest heroic traits.




- Disclaimer & copyright:

Character and concept © SacredBliss
Art and desing © me

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Gonepteryx Rhamni

This sketch is not one of my fairy tales illustrations, but has a story behind it:



June last year, in the evening, I was sat in front of the TV looking through the window when a butterfly (a beautifully shinny gonepteryx rhamni) got my eye. I followed her for a while; her flight was heavy, apparently erratic, and as that’s unusual in a butterfly I went to see what she was doing.
She made me remember something I already knew but that I had partly forgot: that much of the butterflies lay their eggs when they are about to die, using all of their energy to scatter them in different safe places.
While I was following her she fell into the pond.
I blew softly at her for a little while, to help the water out of her wings. She grabbed my finger and refused to let it go even after she was completely dry (that happens to me often with insects, they seem to be comfortable on my skin). When nighttime came she was already too tired and I left her on a rose, in the meanwhile she filled my hand with small eggs.

I drew this that night for her as a thank you for such a wonderful afternoon.

Vital Sign

Hello everyone!

I've been quite busy lately at work so my plans for this blog keep on being postponed. However, I expect to get some time in the following months to make the changes I wanted for this site (you can see some already but I wanted to toy a bit with the template and it happens to be quite different from the ones I'm used to manipulate) and to submit some works I want to finish.

I'm specially looking forward showing you some of my Fairy Tale works, which was one of the original purposes of this site, but you will have a big bunch of sketches too.

Yours,

- Leticia

Vida Universitaria

Sutiles diferencias que hacen funcionar el mundo…

(pequeño experimento de estilo a raíz de un encargo)