For
this Unit X, I have decided to work on ‘The Brainless Deer’.
This narrative project relates back
to Braford Textiles live brief work of narrative animals.
For I
understood my strength is at the field of narrative, which I have lost my way
within the last two previous projects, such as referring back to Michael Kidner
and Gawthorpe brief.
Folktale
about;
‘A lion had who is nearly dying and a Fox stayed with
him. The Lion has a craving
for the Deer who lives in the forest, but the Lion is too weak to kill the Deer himself, so he asks the Fox to
use his ‘Sweet Speech’ to speak with the Deer to get him into the cave for the
Lion.
After a fail first attempt
and on the second attempt the Fox has trick the Deer into returning. The Fox
took the Deer’s brain for himself. His explanation to the Lion for the brain’s
absence is that the Deer is so silly, it cannot have had the equipment to think
with.’
I have used the original
Folktale The Deer without a Heart to
interpret into The Brainless Deer to a more fitting story telling from my
perspective. Using my past experience with narrative and figurative and relates
back to a live brief project that I have done for Braford Textiles and work on
the narrative of animals.
I use my work to commutate with my audience, which for my
expected outcomes I plan to create a range of fabric samples for different
purpose, interior designs, illustration as the story-telling, dedication motifs
for fashion use.
Figure 1: Sketchbook Drawing
For this Folktale, The Brainless Deer has three
main characters and I particularly enjoy working with the number three. Three shows a progression and is
aesthetically pleasing. Groups of three
feel complete and yet cyclical.
Figure 2: Sketchbook Drawing
Using colours to represent the mood of the
character. Such as the Lion is near death, looking at Picasso use of colours in
the Blue Period.
The blue lion allows me to represent emotions
of sadness and loneliness. Lions within
children’s narratives are usually proud animals. The lion is represented as roaring as it’s
last attempt at pride.
Figure 3: The Old
Guitarist – 1903-1904 (Picasso's Blue Period)
Figure 4: The Desert
(1849) Edwin Henry Landseer
Looking at historical
artists of how they capture the moment, mood and transferring it into painting.
From this I have taken
inspiration. I am familiar with this painting from childhood. The image makes me feel sad. The skin and bone of the hungry and dying
lion make me wonder and believe the lion here is still breathing and gasping
for it’s life.
The use of light and shade
within the brown helps us see the lion’s body in different areas of the desert.
Figure 5: Sketchbook
Drawing
A lion had fallen ill and was lying in a cave. A
fox stayed with him, and one day the lion said to the fox, "If you want me
to survive, please listen: I've got a craving for the deer who lives in the
forest. At this moment I no longer have the strength to go hunting after him,
but with that sweet speech of yours, the deer could come here and fall within
my claws."
The sly fox went off and found the deer in
the forest, in a meadow of tender grass. The fox stood before the deer and
greeted him, saying that he had come to relay some important information.
"As you know," said the fox, "the lion is my friend, but he is very
sick and near to die, so he has been thinking about who will be king of the
animals after he be dead."
"The boar is not intelligent, the bear
is lazy, the leopard is impulsive, the tiger is crazy..., but he thinks that
you, the deer, would be a worthy king, since you has an impressive appearance
and lives a long time. And your antlers can scare away all kinds of
snakes."
"But why do I tell you more? It is
decided that you will be the king and you will rule over the beasts of the
hills. When that finally happens, remember that it was me who was the first to
inform you."
"I advise you to follow me and accompany
the lion faithfully up to his death."
This was what the sly fox said to the deer,
and the deer's heart swelled at the sound of those sweet words.
He came to the cave of the lion, with no idea
of what was planned for him. The lion recklessly sprang up from the ground and
launched a hasty attack, but he only slashed the deer's ears with his claws,
and the wretched creature ran straight out the door and disappeared into the
forest.
The fox was striking his paws on having seen
his game lost. And the lion was throwing strong screams, stimulated by his
famine and the sorrow. He begged to the fox to try it again. And the fox said:
"Of course this is a difficult task. But
nevertheless I will carry out your command!"
He went out of the cave and continued the
traces of the deer up to finding him restoring his forces.
The deer saw the fox and prepared to fight
him, saying:
"Miserable fox, do not come to cheat me!
If you give one more step, take yourself as deceased! Looks for others that do
not know about you, speak to them nicely and raise the smokes promising them
the throne, but already not more to me."
But the crafty fox answered:
"But dear deer, do not be so slack and
coward. Do not distrust us that we are your friends. On having taken your ear,
the lion only wanted to say to you secretly his advices and instructions of how
governing, and you do not have even patience for a simple scratch from a sick
old lion."
"Now he is furious against you and is
thinking about the intrepid wolf as to be the new king! Poor person! Everything
that he suffers for being the master! I swear to you for all this forest that
you must not be afraid of anything from the lion. Come with me, but of course,
be humble as a lamb. And as for me, only I try to serve you."
And cheated again, the deer went out towards
the cave. There was not any more the deer than brought in, when the lion
already saw his whim fully satiated, trying to leave not even memory of the
deer.
Nevertheless the brain fell down to the soil,
and the fox took it undercover, like a pay to his negotiations. And the lion
looking for the lacking brain asked to the fox for it. Then the fox answered:
"This ingenuous deer had no brain, do not
look for it. What class of brain might be had by a deer that came two times to
the house and to the claws of the lion?"
