Boxing Hares Collage

I finally finished another portrait for my book!

Harold and Harriet the Hares

close up of Harold

it's spring time!

Hmm, I was hoping that the challenge to do a fighting or hunting scene would force me to do something darker. Alas, I cannot stop making cute things! Oh, well, maybe next time...

lesson - as with painting, avoid the use of black (I like how the dark purple turned out this time.)
discovery - working from maquettes works just as well as working from a larger sculpture
challenge - make the atmosphere mysterious

(To view the study, sculpture, drawing, and vector graphic for this portrait, please view a previous post.)

I've been doing a lot of research lately on the classification of animals, as well as the evolution of animals, and I'm trying to figure out a way to incorporate those ideas into my book. It's fascinating stuff, and I'm discovering a lot of new animals. For example, did you know that there is a deer that has fangs?!

musk deer

harmony and love collages are done!

Thank you, Guillermo, for your inspiring ideas!

18" by 42" wall hangings

The long and elegant Chinese scrolls make so much sense as a format for my work. I'd love to do more of these in the future.

Chinese character for harmony

moon phases

Chinese character for love

sun rays

I also enjoyed collaborating with my dad on this project...

original calligraphy by Simon Hui

thanks, daddy!

an update on the harmony and love collages

Today I made some good progress on the fabric collages for Guillermo. I'm feeling pretty happy!

Here's what I've got so far

The pieces of fabric are all cut out and ready to be sewn together. Each collage will be 18" x 42". (To give you a quick idea of how big that is, I put a pencil in the upper-left corner of the photo.)

a little snip here, another snip there...

some slivers of moon

and rays of sun too!

Soon I'll be lost in the whir of my sewing machine, thread flying and neat little stiches tightening. Will send another update soon...

went for a fabric run today

I'm working on a couple of fabric collages for my friend, Guillermo. I went to Joann's today and got these materials for them.

ooooh... I love them!

vector graphic designs

The blue one shows the Chinese character for "harmony" and the yellow, "love". Prominent sun and moon themes inspired the fabric selection.

sketch of Guillermo's room

Now the funnest part for me, cutting out shapes and sewing my days away. I'll share more pictures soon...

note: I'm having a love affair with radiohead again.

Boxing Hares

I was pretty excited when I discovered that, in springtime, hares have frequent boxing matches!

Interestingly enough, the fighters are not typically both male. It's the female who usually starts hitting her suitor. This is either a signal that she isn't ready to mate or a way to test her mate's endurance.

Meet Harriet and Harold the Hares...

the vector graphic (step 4)

the drawing (step 3)

the sculptures (step 2)

the study (step 1)

Stay tuned for the collage!