perfectly mary poppins.
inspired by the writings of p.l. travers.
perfectly mary poppins.
faerie tale feet piece inspired by the mary poppins writings of
p.l. travers.
“supposing you weren’t mary poppins,
who would you choose to be?”
“mary poppins!” she said.
everybody has memories of the movie.
one of my ALL-time favourite movie scenes is “step in time.”
and what girl isn’t in love with dick van dyke’s uber-charming bert?
have a look at the research and paint & ink process below, and then i'll tell you all the story icons i included in the background pattern!
sometimes i bribe {with desserts} friends & family members to model for me as i figure out who the characters are. (or at least how they’d be posing.)
penguins! bowler hats! parrot umbrellas! and all 9 mary poppins books by p.l. travers…! a peek inside my sketchbook as i figure out with which shapes to best tell the tale.
i re-trace the best story icons to create the pattern on tracing paper ready to be re-traced onto illustration board for painting.
once we've re-traced the drawing, and those transfer paper lines appear, we begin in the top corner… painting in that blue background, using the gouache carefully around each and every story icon in the background.
after the background is painted in solid, we start painting in each icon, one colour at a time!
of course we save painting the feet for last…!
the herringbone pattern on the shoes turned out better than i expected. i used black india ink on the feet and socks for that pure black and full range of values.
included story iconography
this faerie tale feet painting features the iconic tell-tale signs of everyone’s favourite magical nanny.
we all know she comes and goes as she pleases.
her toes-out posture is surrounded by:
tuxedoed penguins (i named the one in the blue bow tie skippy because i could)
her perfectly starched apron
her iconic carpet bag
the parrot-topped umbrella
the blue duck (read p.l. travers’ nine mary poppins books; it’s in there!)
the carousel horse
the hunting fox
mr. banks’ bowler hat
17 cherries (you know, 17 cherry tree lane!)
mary poppins’ daisy-lined hat
those hungry pigeons
medicines by the spoonful (strawberry for jane; lime for michael; rum punch for mary poppins; and milk for the baby- also in the books is a younger sibling!)
a chimney sweep’s sweeper
and of course: a forget-me-not as bert’s perfect gift to the lovely lady
celebrate the movie. celebrate the books.
rewatch disney’s “saving mr. banks” and laugh & cry & cheer. and then watch "mary poppins returns" with the equally flawless emily blunt.
it’s a jolly holiday for everybody!
original painting has SOLD, but you can contact me for a list of available faerie tale feet pieces.