 |
| THE ANGELS URGE LOT AND HIS FAMILY TO FLEE SODOM |
I may not actually use this piece, because it's really rather a minor story, but I am trying to learn to do pictures with more action in them, and this scene was full of action. Sodom is about to be destroyed, and the two angels (looking like regular travelers) are trying to convince Lot's family that it is urgent that they leave NOW.
Looking at the work of some of the great illustrators: Howard Pyle, N C Wyeth, Seth Fisher, and I see tension, bodies in movement, and then I looked at my pictures, and they were all quite still. I realized I needed to learn to portray the tension that is at the heart of a story where there is high emotion and high stakes.
When I started doing watercolors, I thought I was pretty much putting pen and ink aside. But I do really love line drawings. And for this purpose, for handouts to my students, I can copy these on the school copier, so black and white works where color would not.
I've actually always loved the poise and balance of your figures, Vicki. They seem to convey a timelessness, almost a mythological quality, that's very dignified. Those might not be qualities that would be confused for extreme dynamism, but I don't think those qualities are mutually exclusive.
ReplyDeleteI feel the same looking at your work as I do Ivan Bilibin's. There's a formality to it, and a dignity, that demands that I view it as more than illustration.