all the better, red.
inspired by little red riding hood.
"all the better, red."
faerie tale feet painting inspired by the brothers grimm's "little red cap," or "the little red riding hood."
the little red cap her grandmother made for her, the basket to take her gram cake & wine, the bluebells that led red deeper and deeper into the forest… she not only learned to listen to her mom to stay on the path, but defeated the wolf so that by the time the second one came calling, he was just a passing shadow. (did you know gram & red drowned the second wolf? it rarely makes it into the storybooks. silly editors. sure, the hunter cut them out of the belly of the first wolf famous for “all the better to eat you with,” but the girls won round 2 all on their own.)
take to the woods.
and be all the better for it.
icons include:
little red’s riding hood (or cap, as the grimms called it), grandma’s glasses worn by both her and the first world, the wolves paw prints, the basket, scissors (to make red’s cap, and to cut out red & granny from the wolf’s belly), needle & thread (again, to make red’s cap AND to sew rocks into the belly of wolf no.1), bluebells that led red off the path, & the butterflies she chased through the forest when she should have stuck to the path.
see below for the research & painting process!
lots of research into various versions of the tale– and then deciding on the most important shapes (story icons) & facets to the tale.
i've also been known to tear through pages of VOGUE to find power stances or other posture inspiration to help identify our characters.
her boots are great. i bought a similar pair for reference, and had my nerd-tactic bff pose in them in red's power stance. but i embellished the boots with the added buckle straps and the knitted socks because i like to play costume (er, shoe?) designer.
once the shapes were decided on and the boots drawn, i re-traced all the shapes, filling in the solid background paper onto tracing paper.
i then transferred the pattern onto illustration board, and started painting the background. first the shadow of the wolf, then the green background, being very careful not to colour inside the lines of all the icons.
i painted in all the shapes on the green ground first, one colour at a time, then made shades to go inside the wolf shadow to match the ones on the outside.
i always save the feet for last!
paint paint paint… oh, the joy of details!
original painting has SOLD, but you can contact me for a list of available faerie tale feet pieces.