The Escape.

For today's piece of practice-based research I wanted to create a literal adaptation of one of the scenes mentioned in the fairytale.

In the story, Lina has just informed Fundevogel that the Cook plans to boil him in the morning. Whereafter, the two quickly escape from the house to the forest, which leads on to the transformation chase - which just happens to be the core element of the Fundevogel tale.

Still a W.I.P

To explain the theory and composition behind this, I shall use some of the sections of my critical framework.

Mood.

Obviously the escape is on the hush-hush, so the desired mood was one that emphasised the cold of the night and the still in the woods.

Scale.

The scene I pictured in my head when I began thinking about how this could be done, was one from Disney's "Beauty & The Beast". Right after The Beast has let Belle go from the castle to save her father. The viewer see's her gallop over the screen and then the camera pans up from the foot of the castle. It gives this nice perspective from the ground plane, as opposed to from the castle. I felt this angle, rather than an angle from the hut would emphasise the distance better.

Composition.

By filling up half the page with fog or darkness, this lack of detail to the rest of the painting allows a double focus point. First, on the Forester's hut in the background, and then on the two main characters in the mid ground. I also used a very minimal palette of colours to help with this. Again, the warm orange/brown colours in the Forester's hut show the warmth and snugness they've left behind. This contrasts with the cool blues, and greens in the mid/foreground, which represent the cold night.

This scene also gave me the chance to put my Forester hut designs from a few months back:

...into practice.

Symbolism

I haven't really attempted to make symbolism a part of this painting, however, while I was creating it, the light coming from the window almost reminded me of The Iron Giant's eyes. This light being the only focal point in the top half of the painting creates this creepy, watched over feel, like the two are being watched by the hut as they escape. I think this actually adds quite a sinister feel to the painting as a whole, and actually adds to the whole feeling of trepidation and worry of the two characters.