“mountain child.”

faerie tale feet gouache & ink painting inspired by johanna spyri’s heidi.

11 x 11” on illustration board

i'd never read HEIDI by johanna spyri before. (written circa 1880-1881, so it's kind of a classic i'd missed!)

i'd seen the movie as a (very small) child and was emotionally crushed and ruined, for in the film, the grandfather dies.  (i was living in japan at the time and we had to make a very expensive emergency phone call to michigan for my parents to try and console me that my grandpa was indeed still alive.) 

at an art fair recently, someone asked me if i'd ever painted a faerie tale feet piece for heidi. i confessed i hadn't read it because it was too sad, and they said:  "but the grandfather doesn't die in the book!"  and glory be, i'm happy to report that i read it, and they were right.  ;)

so please enjoy the painting process for heidi below, and i’ll share more about the story and some favorite quotes below!

after reading through the book, underlining imagery that might be relevant for my iconography painting, i make the pattern and final drawing from sketches in my sketchbook.

for heidi, i decided i wanted to do two distinct patterns: the wildflowers on the mountain, and the two peeks in the background where i’d put the goats she and peter look after. (i’ll list below other symbology i could have used if i hadn't just gone “decorative” with this piece.) :)

once my pattern drawing is complete, i used a piece of graphite paper to re-trace it onto the illustration board. it gives me my outlines to paint in. :)

i started with painting in the green hills around all the flower details. the back hill is slightly lighter; and yes, i changed all of the flower colors to reflect the change in saturation. putting those color theory skills to work! :)

next was painting in the neutral mountains, again two different colors, with overlapping goat silhouettes.

“there seemed hardly room in her heart for all her joyful emotions...”
— from heidi, by johanna spyri

next was the thing i was looking forward to the most: painting in that flower pattern! one color at a time so the gouache doesn’t bleed into each other. and mixing each flower’s color for the front hill and back hill. (yes, i made myself a rough color map so i wouldn’t mess up!)

here’s another shot of the flowers in progress. just on the flowers, i used three dozen different gouache paint mixes!

i mix my gouache on paper plates. it’s rechargeable with water, and i often use the mixes for watercolor paintings later. (if you want the opaque gouache look, it’s best to use it when it’s wet and fresh. but once dried, it’s easy to use as a transparent watercolor.)

goats! each shape is a different neutral color mix, and again with the color theory where the shapes overlapped.

a few minor background touch ups later, but you can see the number of colors on those paper plates i mixed up! and starting in on the paint and patterns for heidi herself.

the last color to go down was the bright blue sky! (plus some white clouds.) i also used some colored pencils on heidi for texture, particularly in the boots and shoelaces on this cold press illustration board. (it doesn’t take transparent layers of watercolor very well, so had to build up color and contrast another way.)

 

that’s it! i used a pen for her black ink outline just to make sure she stood out a bit from the background patterns and paint as well.

“mountain child.”

from the tale, i could have also used these symbols to represent different characters and story elements. (but i thought just flowers and goats would be the most fun!)

  • a pipe for Alm-Uncle (her grandfather, who does not die in the book! woohoo!!)

  • the 3 old fir trees

  • the 3-legged stool grandfather makes her

  • heidi’s milk boal

  • their 2 goats: little swan and little bear

  • spinning wheel (for peter’s blind grandmother whom heidi visits and tries to pilfer bread rolls to help make her stronger)

  • a feathered hat for cousin dete

  • a wheelchair for clara (lots of reflections of burnett’s the secret garden; must have been the era when nature was the greatest healer!)

in the end, i went with the wildflowers mentioned in the book for the pattern (although i left out the prunella because the shape was too complicated to make a pattern out of.)

the flowers mentioned on the hillside are: red primroses, gentian, golden cistus, prunella, and blue bells.

here are some favorite quotes from the book:

  • “i am glad to see that you have some ideas of your own.” (grandfather to heidi)

  • “i am going to let her grow up and be happy among the goats and birds; with them she is safe, and will learn nothing evil.” (grandfather to the village pastor)

  • “…but don’t ask any questions, or else he will go on explaining and you will understand less than ever.” (clara to heidi about their tutor)

  • “you can finish your thoughts to-morrow morning; make haste, or we shall get no dinner to-day at all.”

  • “because i would a thousand times rather be with grandfather on the mountain than anywhere else in the world.” (a very homesick heidi, mistaken for a ghost as she sleepwalks in the middle of the night)

  • “but you yourself are the greatest blessing, heidi.” (peter’s grandmother upon heidi’s return; bread rolls in hand)

  • “she was home again on the mountain.”

  • “the happiest of all things is when an old friend comes and greets us as in former times; the heart is comforted with the assurance that some day everything that we have loved will be given back to us.”

  • “it is a pity to miss a single one of these days on the mountain.” (the doctor, herr sesemann)

  • “now he has learnt to read there is no knowing what may be made of him yet.” (young shepherd peter’s mom about heidi teaching him to read)

  • “so we’ve made the effort, have we, and won the day!”

  • “i almost forgot my prayers for very joy.” (heidi)

the original painting has SOLD, but contact me for faerie tale feet pieces still available for collecting! :)