Mar 5, 2010

Monday Artday: Circus (The Magic Circus)












    
A few characters from my unpublished novel. Here they are, drumming up publicity for themselves. They want to be famous, that's why they are carrying on like this....rowdy attention seekers, the harlequin, the twin clowns, the Oliphant.....always the same, where ever you go. Ho hum!
    Maybe it's time to start sending them out into the world. At least there'd be some peace and quite around my house.....

   You've got no idea how my new neighbours complain.
   They even complain about the odd smells in my backyard.
    One of these new neighbours - Ralph I think he said his name was - had the hide to come banging on my door last Saturday. He's a rather large, three chinned, red faced man that must drink too much.
   As soon as I opened the door he almost jumped on me.
   "Look here Finnie!", he said - which I thought was a bit presumptious because we had only just met.
   "Yes," I said.
  "You're not keeping some... some ... some kind of animal in there, are you?"
  "Certainly not!" I said, thinking guiltily about the three gold fish my wife kept in one of the cupboards in the spare bedroom.
  "Are you sure?" he asked, his face swelling up as if he were going to have a red apocalyptic spasm. He apparently didn't believe me.
  "Of course I'm sure!".
   He looked over my shoulder and began to sniff the air wafting out of my house. "Well I can smell a pachyderm,' he said.
  "A what?"
  "A pachyderm! An Oliphont, an African .... African Bush Elephant!"
   "Don't be ridiculous!" I said. "My house isn't big enough to hide a large guinea-pig , let alone an elephant."
   I tried to close the door but he'd sneakily stuck his foot in between the door and the jamb.
   He squinted at me through his bright little yellow-bead like eyes and sniffed again. "I can smell an elephant anywhere! I happened to be an eggspert on Loxodonta africana africana!"
 "An 'eggspert'? Well good for you," I said, trying not to laugh. "Now I must be off, I have to hang my washing out, we all need clean socks now and then. Goodbye."
  I closed the door as quickly as I could.
 Through the closed door I could hear him sniffing deeply, as if he really could smell an African Bush Elephant somewhere in my house.
  We stood there for about ten minutes, he sniffing on one side of the door, myself on the other, as quite as house-mouse, not daring to move lest he banged on the door again, forced himself in, and discovered my 'little' secret. 
   




 Please click for enlargement.











14 comments:

  1. It seems you´ve got a whirlwind of characters. Or at least characters that can make whirlwinds! Which both are quite impressive. I really like how you´ve got a whole planet-system going on in there, it give the picture that special magic. :-)
    I might of wanted to soften some the colors on their costumes, to make them blend a bit more. Speaking as a costume-designer used to cooperating with the set-designer to make the perfect whole.

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  2. Love the story! Love the cast of characters! Love your imagination!

    I think you'd best send these folks to make their way in the world, for I have a feeling more rowdy folks will come to take their places.

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  3. I love elephants ... am terrified of clowns... but this painting is amazing so I will accept that clowns have to be there. It is a circus after all, and the circus in general is magic.

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  4. What a ruckus! You don't think you can keep them under wraps for long do you? That guy is sure to come back!

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  5. I feel a sense of freedom looking at this magical piece:-)....J'aime beaucoup!

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  6. very cool piece,Andrew. It is magical; love the elephant!

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  7. Oooh you made me giggle! Eggspert. Hehehehehehe!

    Thank you.

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  8. Andrew, of course your comment on my blog referred to the previous header. I may change it back before I close my eyes. :)

    I still love "Eggspert" I may use that this week at work.

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  9. :))
    very nice Andrew!
    and what is this "little secret"??? :D

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  10. Secrets, secrets..I've got a secret.
    What is it about your blog that brings to mind songs from the past? Sergent Pepper would be at home here.

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  11. love that elephant (he's so powerful-looking!), and those clown costumes are luminescent! Awesome piece — especially the magical swirl or galatic dust in the air. WOw! When is that circus coming to town?!

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  12. What is that other clown doing to the dog? I love visiting here everyday. If you don't mind, I will just look around.

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  13. You are an eggspert ilustrator. Your images are eggcellent and bantering with you is a great brain eggcercise. Okay, I have used up my "egg" quota. Gotta think of something else, like "ham."

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  14. Aha, sorry to bne so long replying. Thanks very much everyone for your comments on the work.

    Janne, that's an interesting comment about the costumes as I actually tried to desaturate them during the process but greyed them down. Last night I isolated them and reduced the green and it looked slightly better.

    Elizabeth and Ginger and Krista and Celine and Cathyann and Karen and Ces and Justin and LDahl (nice to see you not resting on your laurels) and Ces and Mita, thanks again for the kind words. I'm glad this image evokes a 'circus' memory, and yes, I'm scared of clowns as well, especialy the ones who creep into illustrations of their own account......... heh.

    Back soon there is a lot of great work I can see I'd like to catch up on...

    And the secret, well I can't tell you, because then it wouldn't be.... :)

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Hya! Thank you so much for leaving a comment. I appreciate your time and thoughts.