Illustration Friday - IMAGINE
This was my brother Patrick's explanation of what happened to the tiger skin rug.
He was four and every day he went off to kindergarten and had the most amazing adventures. Most days he went off in a helicopter driven by either Pilot Flat, Pilot Small, Pilot Tall or Pilot Wallysuvamechanic (pronounced wally-soover-mecker-nick). Once during one of his many adventures, they caught and killed a tiger. They skinned it and filled the stomach cavity with curry and soup. They then sewed it up and roasted it over a fire and then ate it all up, tiger, soup and curry.
When my mother heard this tale she asked if she could have the tiger skin as she thought it would look lovely on the floor of our sitting room. My brother proudly said of course she could and that he would bring the skin home. Each day he came home, and each day she asked him for the rug but each day there was another reason why it could not be brought home just yet. Finally he said that he would bring it home just as soon as they had taken it to the Korotari river and given it a good wash on the rocks.
Finally Patrick came home rather jauntily one day after kindergarten (and before my mother had a chance to ask after her tiger skin yet again) explained that very sadly they had taken the tiger skin to the river and a freak wave had come down the river and whipped the tiger skin out of their hands never to be seen again!
posted by Julie Oakley at Friday, December 23, 2005
13 Comments:
charming story and wonderful illo!
Well, that was fun! Thanks for the story and illo. Your mom must have had fun teasing him about the river getting the tiger rug when he got older:)
Imagination, he sure had one:)))
You did great illustraiting the unfortunate event!
AWESOME illo !! Very powerful!
Wow, what an imagination. The illustration perfectly fits the story. I love your Andy Worhol inspired Santa banner too! Merry Christmas.
What a great story and a great illo. I applaud your imagination.
Imagine runs in the family, eh? Such a fantastic tale and a splendid illustration! You should publish it:> And the banner...perfect!
WHAT AN INCREDIBLE IMAGINATION! Love your depiction of the story...fabulous! Would you consider making this into a small journal/storybook for your brother? HE'd LOVE it when he got older!
Julie, I gotta tell you that I am a fan of you and Tom:-).
This story is really interesting and the illo is very lively. I think the gene of vivid imagination is in your family!
Your mother clearly nurtured creativity well!
Lovely illustration and thanks for the story too.
Thank you all for your lovely comments. I'm not very happy with the illustration as I rushed at it late at night experimenting with Painter and my minuscule wacom pad and I don't feel that it is a definite style as such. However I don't think I've missed Illustration Friday since I started participating, so even if the illustration is less than satisfactory I always want to submit something.I think I'll just regard it as a preliminary sketch before I do the real thing - which I think I'd like to do in bright saturated watercolours rather than digitally
I will probably have another go at it if I do any more illustrations of Patrick's stories (which I'd like to do).
IDahl, the relief from Patrick at coming up with a way to get rid of the imaginary tiger skin was palpable.
Lin your comment made me laugh - last year was Patrick's 40th birthday!
Miragee, thank you. My second son Hugo has now started as well.
Caroline, I sometimes wonder whether we can provide that space for creativity for children, nowadays. I know that sheer bloody boredom was the main reason I drew so much as a child!
I enjoyed reading your post and the illustration is great maybe not as less satisfactory as what you have said.
Happy holidays to you and your loveones.
What a great childrens' book or short story that would make. Take everyone's suggestion and consider publishing it somewhere. What great imagination!
Julie - I love this - the story - the illustration.....I think all the stories would make a great book, plus your illustrations of course!
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