This Illustration Friday topic ended up a kind of marathon. I initially wanted to do something with the Aesop's fable "Sour Grapes" aka The Fox and the Grapes.
I tried quite a few different approaches to the story and in the end decided on a graphic-y book plate type look. The fox still has hope of getting the grapes at the point and hasn't decided that they will be sour and not worth bothering about.
My other idea-that I intended to be a quick addition was a type of boiled sweet from Scotland called a soor ploom - which is Scots for sour plum.
Soor plooms are green and acidic tasting and the sweets are supposed to have been originally made to commemorate a battle near Galasheils [Scottish Borders] in 1337.
The Galasheils town motto is sour plums /soor plooms and coat of arms has a plum tree and two foxes trying to eat them -which harks back to the Aesop's fable.
When i was a kid growing up in Scotland there were still lots of traditional sweetshops that stored hundreds of different types of sweets in huge glass jars. The sweets were weighed out and poured into a little paper bag or a twist of paper.
Kids most often bought two ounces of sweets , adults usually bought sweets in quarters [ 4 oz].
Sweets aren't the same without the solemn ritual of choosing from massed ranks of glass jars but I suppose that is probably just nostalgia.
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9 comments:
Both pictures work for the topic. I like the 'easy' style of the first one - all the important detail without a line that wasn't necessary. I might have chose no or maybe a different colour for the background. Pale blue doesn't have the 'acidity' for me to go with sour. It would work well in a book of Aesop's fables for adults of teenagers.
The second one is great too. The style is very different but I like the feeling of nostalgia about it. The green in it has a lovely feel of 'sour' about it. It would make a lovely spot illustration for a children's book.
Nice illustrations! Both.
Great ideas! Both of them!
Like minds on the grape thing!
Love both drawings. But the jar one has lots of good memories for me as well. Beautiful work.
I really like the fox illo...I think the light blue makes it look nostalgic, like an old timey children's book of fables and such. Great work on both pieces!
What a super entry, two great ideas, love the graphic quality of the first and it's interesting to see different takes on this idea (have you seen www.jmeyersketches.blogspot.com/) Nice to have a bit of background to your art too :)
Magpie magic - thanks for the comments- I tried various colours but liked blue best of all as iot was meant to be a kind of sky.
I can see what you mean about an acid colour pulling everything together with the 'sour' idea though
vhrsti , tracey, roberta, sandra,and bee -thanks for the comments and stopping by. I've enjoyed visiting your sites too
bee -I checked out the link you sent- what beautiful soft and dream art work
i like them both too, but the fox is my favorite. I guess it's because I love it's simplicity, the bold dark lines and the single color in the background. It's lovely!
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