Le Petit Chaperon Rouge

"Le Petit Chaperon Rouge" - oil on yupo, 23 x 20.  Available here and at Artfinder.


"[singing] Do not put your faith in a cape and a hood, they will not protect you the way that they should. And take extra care with strangers, even flowers have their dangers, and though scary is exciting, nice is different than good.” - Mother, 'Into the woods' (2014).
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The tumult of characters in the studio demanding attention continues. 

Little Red Riding Hood has been here before....she has many forms, many faces, many meanings.  And the AI bot loves her madly.

Le Petit Chaperon Rouge

What is it, exactly, about a cape and a hood that settles over the wearer like a sort of protective shield?  How does a cloak become enchanted while worn? And what is it about wearing a red cloak that says we can walk through the forest unharmed?

In the clip (left), Red ultimately gives her cape away to the Baker, hoping her grandmother will make her a new one out of the skin of the big bad wolf.  That gesture gets me right there, as she freely lets go of her naïveté and embraces the lesson and her own power.

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About the art:  the AI bot has given me a stack of Little Reds to play with.  Something about this fairytale resonates with the bot, while others do not.  In this version, she's calm and pensive, eyes closed, flanked by protective beasts.  A little older, a little wiser, perhaps.

Beginning with a piece of yupo toned with oil paint and Liquin, then lightly sketching the shapes with a colored pencil.  Slowly adding thinned paint layers, and then carving back through the wet paint with a chopstick (the yupo is amazing for this - exposing the paper down to the white.  Yum). Adding successive washes of darks and lights to create value.  Using paint diluted with Gamsol to allow the edge of her dress to run and drip down the paper.  As a final step, carving back through the paint with a palette knife to expose the highlights on her hood.  Lots of drying time with the yupo, but it is totally worth the wait.