Thursday 9 December 2010

The dog and his shadow


It has been a while since my last post, but this project has taken a little longer than anticipated. I've worked with scraperboard only once before and wanted to get a good feel for the medium. I wanted to explore different markmaking possibilities and whether they would appear different from the more fluid ink lines. I also wanted to see whether it is possible to create your own scraperboard to work on. I think the test went rather well. The lines of the brush to paint the gesso with added to its rugged appeal.

I chose the fable of the Dog and his Shadow to illustrate. There is a lot of truth in this fable for me. The dog was so lucky to come across a juicy steak, but when he left he saw his reflection in the water, and thinking it is another dog with another steak grabbed at it in his greed. The steak in his own mouth fell into the water, which left him with none. There is a lot of value to this fable. We can so easily miss the beauty & blessing already present in our lives. We need to learn gratitude.