sketch book update...

I've been a bit rubbish with putting sketches up on here the last couple of weeks. Here's what I've been drawing since the last sketch I uploaded...

In these images I tried to get across the idea of the 'hen pecked' father and controlling step mother. I wanted to show her keeping a slight hold on him, reminding him to whom his loyalties are to and to who is in control. This also links to the idea that she 'snatched him from Ashputtle's mother before her corpse was cold'.

Within Chinese versions, Ashputtle confides in a fish. The step mother dislikes this and kills the fish. Ashputtle finds the hidden fish bones and buries them. These then grow into the wishing tree. I found it quite hard to draw fish bones however, so I followed the Grim brother's version, using the tree branch (As Carter writes three versions of her story, she uses both the fish and the branch)

The story of the mother killing the fish reminded me of a story I loved to read when I was little.

 'The Chinese Cinderella', by Adeline Yen Mah, is a true story about her life growing up. She was born a girl, and the youngest of the siblings, which lead to her being the least favourite child. But her mother also died while giving birth to her, leading to her father neglecting her, and her siblings often picking on her. The father remarried and her step mother also disliked her. The children were given chicks as a pet. Due to her status within the family, Adeline had last pick, and received the smallest, weakest chick. But she loved it. basically, the mothers Alsatian dog caught Adeline's chick and killed it.

(Adeline grew up and did better than was expected of her. She did very well in education, became very independent, and eventually became a teacher- this story links very well to the theme of my project, where the daughters are not expected to choose their own destiny's ).

It also reminds me of another story within Carters 'Burning in Your Boots', where someone likes to eat eggs right before they turn to chicks!

I link these two stories to the common theme within fairy tales, of young girls, (normally only sixteen) being given to men by their parents or 'hunted' by men looking for a wife. Often describing these women a prey and men as predators.

(This is partly where my ruined wedding dress comes in.)

....And below we have more crying girls!....but this time their crying on to the planted tree branch, which then grows into the wishing tree... :)

(I really like the style of this first image. I like how its simplified in some areas and more intense in others, such as the face. I also like how I've completely left out some section, such as the torso, so that not all the information is available to viewers. It makes it a bit different I suppose.

I also quite like the style of this image above, especially the tree branch. I blew ink with a straw to form the tree branch (as with the other branches in the above images). Its more fun than simply sketching it!