My goodness, post every day did I say? No, that’s not possible, it turns out! However, I HAVE been managing lots of little ink projects as Inktober continues to continue!
Uli With Familiars, and Mausoleum for Mona
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ pen and ink
Actual black and white and also some grayscale – these are noteworthy details as you don’t generally see either around these parts. Perhaps that will change. Perhaps a “Grayscales Project”. Ugh, but no time right now. Will put on back burner. :)
The Princess in the Bottle
2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics
The Princess in the Bottle
Once there was an evil queen who loved nothing but jewels. It is said her heart was a hard, tiny diamond. They say she caused the riding accident that took the life of the king as punishment for impregnating her with their only child, a daughter. When the baby was born, the queen was repulsed by its soft helplessness, and without so much as giving it a name, she sent it away to live with a childless crone living in the dusty hills.
Unbeknownst to many, the crone was a witch,. She named the child Marta and taught her everything she knew, all the while filling her with tales of her mother’s greed and evil nature. When the child was thirteen, she set out with a pale amber bottle she had prepared for her mother.
When Marta arrived at the castle, she found the queen a sad, lonely wreck of a woman surrounded by her jewels, who could not even keep a hound for more than a week before it ran away into the forest. She admired her daughter’s beauty, and wished some for herself. Marta agreed she could have some, so she added a few words to those she had prepared, making her mother young again, as young as Marta herself, before capturing her in the amber bottle, and sealing the lid with a waxy resin she’d made from boiling her own hair.
Marta invited the crone to live with her in the castle. They threw open the heavy curtains for the first time in years, and tamed all the half-wild hounds that roamed the forest.
None of the hounds would go near the room that housed the amber bottle, the one with the sad, tiny princess who was once an evil queen.
(c) The Slumbering Herd, 2014***
Thanks for dropping in! And super late hello to Paint Party Friday. :)
Great little story and of course, fine illustrations.
hahahaaaa love these! halloweeeeeenie!
These are SO good, Cindy. Uli and the pumpkin really stand out for me. Fantastic!
I like the gray scale drawings, especially the rodent on the pilgrim’s hat. Albert doesn’t look overly happy to be called for jury duty, does he. The evil queen got what she deserved, didn’t she.
I adore your story and your illustrations are wonderful. Just wonderful. You are a born storyteller, you know.
Albert is so cool(that droopy face). He looks like he could speak and tell me all his woes.
Love all of these, but especially Uli. And that fairytale is so much fun.
YES! I love the story! It is bluntly and unapologetically dark, like all the best fairy tales are! (And really, you know you’re no good when dogs don’t want to hang out with you, amiright?).
Your cards just get more and more amazing. Uli transfixes me, and I love and adore Albert!
Lol….I love Albert and his expression and his title……great job capturing the facial features. You creatures have such imaginative personalities…..even Princess in Bottle looks forlorn. Wonderful work…..
such great drawings! i so enjoyed seeing each one of them.
Cindy, I like the illustration of Uli with familiars and the mausoleum for Mona is great. I always enjoy your October illustrations. The tale of the evil queen in a bottle is spooky. You most likely have heard of the illustrator Edward Gorey. If you have not, you should check out his work. His black and white ink work really has a spooky feeling.
The story is like so many you have written amazing-so when is that short story book to be written??
Love the pumpkin too-what a cutie!! Guess the computer is functioning once again. Love, Mom
I’m totally digging Uli and that fabulous pumpkin. I keep on saying this, but you truly are the pattern queen.
Got the story but not the pics on this one-did enjoy the story of the “Princess in the bottle”! Love, Mom
Love the “Uli” guy & his buddies-getting caught up with the older “Pics” you’ve been sending. By the way The
“princess in the bottle” & the story about the mean Queen does belong in “The Book”-no doubt about it!
OX Mom