Character sketches...

Although this is not finalised, I have settled at the moment on compiling the original very old Irish myth "the Children of Lir" which from my research appears to be the 'parent' myth of all the ones I have been researching. As this is the oldest of all the tales I think it would be appropriate to perhaps place this as the first one in the book.

I have chosen the the following tales after "The children of Lir" mainly because they most closely resemble the story of the first one. There are many I have read about such as "The Feathery Robe/Hagoromo" which also has many different versions, but the story varies from the generalised "Swan Maiden" one which I have chosen to illustrate. So, to summarise there are in total (so far) six variations of this myth from around the world which I will record and illustrate.

Since the beginning of this unit I have been sketching ideas for the main characters, and also attempting to stylise the swans which are really the main heroine's brothers, put under a curse by their stepmother. (typical fairytale theme here)...

In one of the first tutorial/crits we had with Kit, it was suggested for me to try to stave off the computer for my intial sketches and experiment with traditional media. So, my first efforts were on this brown parcel-paper, with a 6B pencil and white pencil. For some reason they seemed to blend really well together. I like the sketch-like outcome of this... it has more depth than a regular pencil sketch as well, so I may come back to this style when I start finalising my illustrations.