Kiss the Cook... and you DIE!

I just got a third story published over at Enchanted Conversation - it's a great site for re-imaginings of the classic fairy tales. They're on issue 4 at the moment – if it's a genre you're interested in, I highly recommend it.

My story is "Cooking Children! with Witch Wanda." If you read it, you can tell that there's a LOT of Cooking Channel being watched in our house (and okay, I'll say it, Crone Weekly is inspired by Us magazine. But it's my wife's, not mine, really!). In it I describe Witch Wanda's apron, and decided to draw up some possible versions of it. They're just comps, since I can't make up my mind which one I like better. Anybody have a preference?

Sorry, Were Those Yours?

I was putting too much thought into this one, which made it seem like it would never get finished. So I just decided to do a little bit at a time. That way, I'd just play with it, instead of trying too hard. And then, after a couple weeks or so, when I went to work on it again, it looked finished. It just sort of happened, somehow.

Which seemed so highly improbable that I asked another artist I work with if he thought it looked finished, and he said yes as well.

So here it is. The picture of the little bird that caused Hansel and Gretel so much trouble. I'm going to start a witch picture in the same vein at some point, but I've really gotten going on "The Woodcutter and the Mermaid," so there will be a lot more pages of that up first.

Interludes upon interludes

And now, a short break from my short break from Hansel and Gretel. Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year (the year of the tiger) fall on the same day this year, so I just had to do a card that included both. I left it up on the computer so that my wife could find it this morning.

I would feel like I'm wasting the chance to market a perfectly good holiday card here, except for the tiny fact that the likelihood of the year of the tiger and Valentine's Day occurring together again is pretty small for the next century or so. But in 2110 or whenever, I'll be so ready with this card.

But I've been working on the Frog Prince as well, so I'll be back to interrupting Hansel and Gretel in no time.

Back into the Woods

Progress! Nowhere near finished, of course, but a far cry from a doodle on lined notebook paper.

I've always pictured Hansel and Gretel being turned out of the house in Autumn. It seems like a particularly nasty time to abandon someone. Not a flat out death sentence like the middle of winter, true, but in late fall, after harvest time, when they have a tantalizing hope of finding food but they most likely can't or the stepmother wouldn't have turned them out of the house to begin with. Abandoned just at the right time to let them starve first and then have the cold finish them off.

Clearly I have strong opinions about how bad the stepmother is in this story.

But it does make for a nice fall palette in the painting.

Hansel and Gretel - in process

I needed to get a new post put up – while I like my Santa image, in our house the Christmas decorations come down the day after the holiday, so it is way past time to put up something else.

While I don't have anything finished yet, I have been toying with illustrating Hansel and Gretel for a while. Not for any particular reason, it's just that the story conjures up a lot of imagery for me. And while randomly doodling (you can see it's on notebook paper) I came up with this drawing – Hansel and Gretel coming across the very stuffed and happy bird that ate up all their bread crumbs. The finished piece will be titled "Sorry, Were Those Yours?"

More on this to come, as I take it to a tight sketch and then a finished painting.