Short Reports: Lesley Barnes vs. The Firebird
September 6, 2010 at 10:30 am meg Leave a comment
Hi everyone, just Meg here– I’m currently out of town at a wedding, so I unfortunately ran low on time to share the next scene in Alice with you. Expect a double dose of Alice October 11, but in the meantime please enjoy a lovely pair of scenes from Lesley Barnes! (More scenes from the Firebird are on her portfolio, so please check them out!)
Ivan was left holding a shimmering feather, but the Firebird had escaped and was winging away into the distance. Dropping the feather from one hand to another like a hot potato, Ivan went to fetch his horse, for he meant to go on with the hunt. Though he had caught only a painful blister instead of the Firebird, the feather lit a path through the darkness, making a splendid torch.
The illustration is from the Russian folk tale ‘The Firebird’. I recently discovered a vintage picture book called ‘Tales from Russia’ and flicking through the pages I rediscovered ‘The Firebird’. The story has everything you would want from a fairytale – golden apples, Russian Royalty, an incident with a waxed moustache, a talking wolf and of course a thieving shimmering Firebird….
It was very difficult to choose just one passage to illustrate but finally I decided upon depicting Ivan (the Russian Prince) chasing the illusive Firebird – using its firey tail feather as a torch to light his way in the dark. I liked the way I could illustrate a tiny ’flavour’ of the majesty of the Firebird (the single flaming tail feather) without completely giving away what the bird looked like – in the story the bird is extremely hard to grab hold of, so I wanted to keep that illusive quality in the image……the idea of the hunt.
I couldn’t stop drawing this! So I thought I’d work on this piece too. It’s the next bit in the story when a magical wolf jumps out at the prince. Enjoy!
Entry filed under: Short Reports. Tags: lesleybarnes, thefirebird.
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