Jul 17, 2010

Illustration Friday: "Breakfast"



 


































Q:Well, why would giants eat children for breakfast?
A: Because they can!

Continuing on with the fairy tale theme.
If you are interested in the genesis of these images, it will be found in a  fortified cathedral I visited in Albi (France) a few years ago. From memory it was in the heart of Cathar country.
In the early 1200's, backed by the pope, the northern Lords of France invaded the Cathar region of France (in the south) and went about murdering the locals and seizing their land. It's a sad story, and if you read it you will quickly develop a sense of loathing for a man called Simon de Mountfort.
In this particular Cathedral, the back walls had a large dark paintings of Hell, reminscent of Bosch. {edit: (16.4m x 15.6m) mural of The Last Judgment covers both sides of the rounded west wall of the nave.}

Painted between 1474 and 1484, the idea of this painting was for the new Catholic overlords to show their new Cathar underlings what happens to sinners if they don't go to church on Sundays - and don't put a penny in the plate. There is an example of the Hell paintings here.
In real life they are even scarier.....

If you are interested in fairy tales and food have a look here.
In these images, the idea to blend over the kids' eyes comes directly from Wanda Torres ace painter.
The surf was good today - so I didn't get a chance to write a story --- sorry.

But I did do all these images this afternoon ---- gee I need a glass of wine!
Thanks for looking. If you click the images they get bigger ;)



Small note on Simon de Montfort.
During the Cathar wars, de Mountfort is reputed to have ordered a fortified town stormed, burnt to the ground and all it's inhabitants (mostly Catholic) put to death. The reason - there were a small number of Cathars living in the town and the Catholic inhabitants had refused to hand them over.
When asked by one of his men, how they would tell the Catholics apart from the Cathars, de Montfort answered: "Kill them all. God will know his own."  Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius. ? Maybe: Neca eos omnes. Deus suos agnoscet.

PS maybe de Monfort didn't say this, but it makes a better story....




33 comments:

  1. Blimey!! You are crrruuueeellll........!!!

    Sorry, Simon de Montfort is dee-ee-dee, so I'll take it out on you instead.

    So, I suppose it gives you pleasure to put all the children you've created in a bowl and serve them to the giant?

    Well, never trust an optometrist, I say. Especially those who surf too much!

    Heheh. :D :D

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  2. Wow! It's cruel and fascinating at the same time. It's a bit yucky to see when you have kids, but at the same time, hells like these are still going on in the world today. Hells like Simon de Montfort created so many centuries ago in Cathar France. It's unbelievable and we naturally feel like turning away. I love it when art draws our eyes TO it. If we all SAW, perhaps we would all work harder to stop those hells.

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  3. You know when I saw that you had your If-breakfast post done this morning, I thought to myself, this time he´s eating kids for breakfast. I opened the post, and what did I see?! :-)
    I didn´t know giants ate kids though. I thought only trolls did. But then again, trolls don´t limit themselves to kids. They´ll eat anything that has "the smell of Christian blood". Scandinavian fairy-tales weren´t really all that child-friendly...
    My favorite is the 10th picture, with the giant blurry in the back. Poor thing actually looks quite hungry...

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  4. Fascinating - great illustration

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  5. wowwwwww, full on creepiness and coolness too. I love this one too Andrew; you are on a roll. The movement in the last image is very well done.

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  6. Very cool. The thing I really don't get is how can you whip these out so fast???

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  7. Eh .... I have a question, Andrew, what kind of wine would drink to accompany this kind of food? Chardonnay?, Perhaps Chablis? Here we have a very good Torrontes, or can be accompanied by a soft red wine like a Merlot? I am interested in the marriage.

    (I'm kidding eh)

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  8. Why do I love this? I do. I love Bosch. He inspired me for this one:

    http://cesandherdishes.blogspot.com/search?q=anomie

    So I like your breakfast because I also did one where the rabbit was preparing a meal of humans on this illustration.

    See!? I love your brain!!!

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  9. prends moi.
    je suis a toi.
    mea culpa.

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  10. Those poor kids! Are they in a bowl of milk? Are they like Krunchie Kiddies Cereal or something? Whats for dinner? Poor boy sandwiches and Kiddie cocktails? :o)
    You don't even have to tell a story for this one Andrew.... The pictures say a thousand words... so if my math is right.... you have a 14,000 word composition here.
    How did you get all these pictures done in a few short hours? You are amazing!! Great.... as usual!

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  11. Oooof... awesome.. I am going to get my son out of bed to take a look!

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  12. Ahhh, traditional fairy tales. Gotta love em. Another great series of illos.

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  13. Well, anyone who likes the stars can't be all that bad, don't you think so?

    Yes, the perfect master is hard to find, you know. She needs one fast, or she'll never dance again. (^___^)

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  14. Amalia! So you have pieced together a little of my life. It is not pretty, is it? Especially when I have hidden my self portrait in the giant's visage/ First dwarf, then elephant, then a giant? What's next? :)

    Maybe back to puppett?

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  15. Mandy, that is an interesting comment, thankyou. I am one of the lucky few I guess sitting in an insulated world. You're right, its terrible what does go on. And nothing to laugh about....

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  16. Hi Janne, well Giants will eat anything. These kids were actually going to be an illustratiom to go on the back of a breakfast cereal :) But I ran out of ooomph. Thanks for telling me which one you prefer

    cheers :)

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  17. Krista and Karen and Helen and Linda, thanks I am glad you enjoyed them. It's good when they get a visceral response? Might get me locked up mind you.

    Linda, well these kids are the kids from my header. So they were already up and running, so to speak. Digital work is very quick once you have done the footwork. So it might take three hours to get one of these kids to a pint where he is ready to go, but once he is you can get him into any number of ilustrations.

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  18. Roberto, you are very funny! I think it was unwoodede chardonnay with a touch of lime in the bouquet?

    Cheers. I hope you do a breakfast!

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  19. Ces and Mita, see I put you together because you are sisters and are very very lucky to have such a fine friendship. Ces, that is a wonderful illustration. I admire you greatly. And Mita, I know you are not an artist, but what you do, whatever it is, is awesome. I mean owesome. :)
    :)

    Ps thanks for looking at my work. :)
    :)

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  20. Heheh. I've never seen you in an ogre, a wizard, or a clown. Oh, forgive me! Of course I have. I'm quite delusional... (^_^)

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  21. Mita, just kidding about the "I know you are not an artist!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

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  22. Heidi and Kitty and Sally, thankyou. Kids, the other white meat. what a crackup. Probably low cholsterol!
    Kitty, I hope your son was okay after seeing the images!

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  23. Hey Jack, thankyou you are making me blush. It's funny your mind is on the track, yes they are in milk. We could start a brand of kid's brekkie with our combined talent :) :)

    The get thrown in jail! Heh.
    What program are you using for the 2d animation?

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  24. Amalia :) Oh I am all those, especially the latter :)

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  25. HAHAHA! You are a troublemaker! A lovable one, of course.

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  26. What a WONDERFUL take on this topic. Love the pictures too--though looking at them I am grieving about your comment of how digital pictures "don't exist"....and we are SO drawn into these. That poor ogre, who can't do anything else, and the distorted, frightened children!

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  27. Brilliant illustration. Very scary - great expressions on the poor childrens' faces!

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  28. Andrew, thank-you for the kind comments on my Hobo. I love the 3D quality to your work. To me it's like looking into the old view-master toys that we had as kids. It's another world that you just want to step into!

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  29. Oh Ces, me? Twouble maker? Oh, okay. I am a dislexic clwnow! I aamdit it!

    Theresa, thankyou! I start sometimes to worry about my mental health - and then I realise I don't have any to worry about. Oh digital? It is the way of the future - it is easy (once you learn the tools) and it is simple and a science.

    I think the edit>undo button is a great boone to mankind - seriously, you can right your wrongs with a mouse click

    Heidi ; thank you as well. Your Hobo is a scream!

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  30. Do you have the recipe for this...... just kidding! Although a glass of wine after a day of surf and art making sounds delightful!!!

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