CREATIVE TUESDAY: Muse Within


( Muse Within )

For this week’s Creative Tuesday theme, Muse , I did a simple pen and ink line drawing.

My ‘muses’ are always artists from the past. Of course the Pre-Raphaelite painters hold the greatest inspiration for me, along with 19th century Paris Academe masters. The latter required their students/apprentices to use sculpture from antiquity as models to perfect the human form and I do this with my students as well. I actually still use a lot of statuary for models in my own drawings/illustrations, altering them in subtle ways, even idealizing them to reflect a certain mood or to give a particular appearance. This drawing was a combination of those influences and resources. My ancient muse here is gazing into a mirror, searching for her own inner muse.

MR. TOAST'S CREATIVE TUESDAYS: MUSIC AND MERRIMENT





This is my offering, Music and Merriment, for Mr. Toast’s Creative Tuesdays:

For the last couple of weeks I’ve been listening to a Celtic Christmas CD with predominately Irish fiddle music (blame it on my ancestors) :), and I must say that the ultimate festive Christmas song for me is I Saw Three Ships. That song was really a catalyst for me to start thinking of Christmases of the past way before Internet, i-PODS, CD’S or even radio was around to entertain. So, my concept is a festive 19th century evening( could be in Ireland, England, or even in Appalachia) with a father playing fiddle for his two young children as they sit opposite one another on stools, clapping along to the lively accompaniment.

The illustration technique is called Scherenschnitte ( German for paper-cuts). It's often referred to as "drawing with scissors". I also added some pen and ink accents. This takes silhouette cutting a bit further by incorporating scenery and also line drawing(outline) into the image. I first drew a line drawing of my subjects, then used the drawn figures as templates to make paper-cuts ( with surgical scissors and a sharp scalpel to cut out/in really small details). I then added the musical notes and scrolling design with a pen…

What a fun theme…I hope you enjoy!