Rosie's Characters

Hedge Pig

Model Hedge Pig

(made from Hand-made felt, a course brown fabric and two white buttons.)

The inspiration for the character came from my father's hedgehog teddies, when my uncle James asked me to make a replica of one of the hedgehogs (in return for a photograph of himself next to a camel in Egypt, which was difficult as he had never been to Egypt before) I began making the hedge hog, but found myself becoming fond of this pig, every day making up stories about his past and the adventures he got up to. So i gave away the original Hedgepig toy, and made another one, this one with a coat, fit for his travels.

Hedge Pig's past; My favorite character is Hedge Pig, he is a troubled hedgehog with an alcoholic problem. He was brought up in a small tree with his loving parents, he was a restless soul and was always getting into trouble. However one day he traveled too far and was caught by the wicked Mucca and Doog (They were once Lords, but that's another story) they wanted to eat Hedge Pig for dinner! To prepare him, they plucked the spikes from his back. Somehow, Hedge Pig managed to escape, he ran through the wood, too embarrassed to go home. For a hedgehog with no spikes is no hedgehog at all.

Ivor the mouse

final

Model Ivor the mouse

( Hedge Pig and Ivor the Mouse, Watercolour and black fine liner on paper)

The truth is, I'm not sure where the inspiration for Ivor the mouse came from, it's something i would quite like to know. At some point i will go through all of my old sketchbooks and try to find out! Mouse was originally called 'Mouse' but as all the mice in the stories were called 'Mouse' i thought it could get a bit confusing. So i decided to call him Ivor, after a mouse i named that i saw every day when walking to college in the mornings.

Hedge Pig first met Ivor the Mouse at college, when they were both studying philosophy. After many years of partying, along with Jason the rabbit and Peter the squirrel, Ivor soon settled down with a fellow mouse, with whom he had a child called Ivor Jr.Unfortunately Ivor and his wife was killed by a member of hells angels because of a old grudge. It was said in the will that Hedge Pig would be the guardian of Ivor Jr if any such thing as this would happen, so, Hedge pig decided to move back to the countryside where he grew up to raise Ivor Jr properly.

Mucca, Doog and Gersepi

( Painting of Mucca and Doog, taken from 'The last tea time'. Watercolour and black biro pen on paper.)

Design sheets from National Diploma project, 3D.

(Top left; describing the story of the sculptures and early drawings of mucca and doog.

Right; Design sheet for the sculptures - apparently the architect designed it the wrong way around!- )

All drawn with fine-liner pen, crayon and on paper.

I first thought up Mucca and Doog (pronounced Doo-ag) during my last year of National Diploma. We were given a project about 3D sculpture, and as at the time i was too fascinated in the world i was creating that i couldn't simply just 'make a sculpture' with no meaning. So i had an idea, i created three cave-man-like characters, Mucca, Doog and Minnie Mucca (the model of which was sadly lost) who wanted an architect to create them a series of sculptures for their front garden. This was the sculpture i made for the project, therefore it had meaning, so i was happy with it.

The Story of Mucca and Doog; Mucca and Doog were once lords. Mucca, being the lord of things that move, and Doog being the lord of things that don't move. But don't start thinking that this makes them at all high and mighty as they were just the jesters in the court of lords, above them were many other lords, lord of the toaster, lord of lords, lord of everything even the lord of lords and many many more. One day Mucca and Doog, upset by the disapearence of their beloved Minnie Mucca, decided to build a series of huge sculptures in their front garden. Once completed, they had a series of complaints from their neighbours, who would suggest that the sculptures were more like rotten slices of cheese than art. The Lord of rotten slices of cheese found out about this, and was not happy, as he had not given any prior permission to build such commodities. The media got hold of the story and it didn't look good for Mucca and Doog, their titles were revoked and were forced out of their home and into a caravan on the edge of Old Wood. Here they have lived since, still bitter and sour about the whole situation.

mucca and doog

Photograph of Mucca and Doog models

(made with unraveled string, two black buttons, tip-ex for eyes, random selection of beads, wire mesh and the end of a paper cone.

It was not long after this that they decided to kidnap a young hedgehog, as they were so hungry. But he escaped, this is why they are not fond of hedgehogs)

Gersepi

100 1998

Gersepi

(drawing made on a paving stone, drawn with any rocks i could find.)

Gersepi was a much later invention, thought up during my final project on my Foundation diploma course. A friend and i were making small rafts and sailing them down the river, I decided to make a little character to be placed on one of these rafts, by drawing a little furry man onto a piece of stone which i named Gersepi.

I later came up with his story, He was a child living in a tribe of other mask wearing people. He often wondered why everyone was so miserable and hopeless, so he went on his travels to find out. He helped an owl to fly, a giraffe to be confident, an elephant to be brave and a crocodile to be kind. This is when he realised that by helping these people, he was giving them hope. By learning this, he helped his tribe be happy again, and all was well.

Gersepi model

(made from a paper cone, various pieces of string, beads, feathers, ribbon and a clay mask.

Clay mask painted with watercolours. Boy underneath the costume also made with clay (although his head fell off!))

It was a sudden thought one day, but it made sense. Perhaps Gersepi, the boy of hope and kindness (once called Minnie Mucca, but became lost) was the son of Mucca, the man of misery and bitter anger.

The Giants and the Wise Ones

Two of my most earliest characters, the Giants and The Wise Ones. The Wise Ones being a old race of fly that has seen so many years go by, they are in fact so old that they remember Uman Beans (Human beings). After all this observing they became very intelligent, and with intelligence they gained respect from the other creatures in the land. If you ever had a puzzling question, they are the first to ask! The Giants were once humans but over the hundreds of thousands of years they have changed quite a bit.

The Giants and the Wise Ones

'And so they sing to the stars for what they did'

(Watercolour paint and black fine liner pen, on peeled away card to create texture for background.)

The Giant's story; There were once Uman Beans that roamed this land, it was so long ago that no one really remembers, except for the Wise Ones, but they don't really like to talk about it. At one point during history, these uman beans turned into bean trees as they just stopped walking. More and more years past and eventually the bean trees turned into giants! Every day they would stand tall and proud above the tree tops, watching the other little creatures grow and learn. Until one day a giant named Umlag decided he didn't want to just stand and watch anymore, he wanted to sing, dance and be merry! He had a plan, he was going to steal a mouth from a passing fly. When the right moment came, he did just that! He danced and sang all the merry songs he heard the other creatures sing, but that wasn't enough for Umlag, he started spewing nasty words at all that got in his way! Creatures were crying everywhere, shocked by his behavior. So many tears were shed in fact that rivers started flooding! Oh what a mess the land was in. This was when the Wise Ones decided that enough was enough. They cursed Umlag, and all the giants of the land, to become small and still as they once were, but as a punishment they were to sing to the stars every night for the rest of their lives. If just one giant refused to do so, they would all turn into bean trees once more, not even able to see or hear or sing to the beauty of the land they live in.With this story, i tried to create a similar feel as human myths. The mystery of whether there is any truth in it or not. I hoped that if you read a little deeper into the story, it could be hinted at that perhaps the story is so old that it has been exaggerated. For example, crying didn't cause floods, or ruin the land, but humans destroyed the land somehow. Hinting at some man-made disaster or a nuclear war, which took the land thousands of years to recover from, and this is the real reason the ancestors of humans are to be punished.

Lily the Uman

Inspiration; I came up with the story of Lily long before i could draw her, the early drawings are quite embarrassing! Lily is a little Uman girl with a red duffel coat and a purple hat that she never takes off. The cat ears were sewn onto her hat by her mother as Lily really likes cats, in fact, up until she was 6 she thought she was a cat! She never said a Uman word but meowed instead.

Lily and the time machine

(Fine liner pen, watercolour paint and textures from images on the internet, placed by using Photoshop)

She's still not at the standard that I'm completely happy with, but i thought I'd add a few images from the short, fairy-tale based story 'Lily and the baulder' that i wrote and illustrated as part of a Foundation Degree project, where i was experimenting with adding photographs to images as well as text and composition. Originally it was supposed to be Lily and her older brother Jack, but i thought I'd leave Jack to be a character i develop in the future.

'Lily and the seven mice'

(Watercolour paint, fineliner pen on paper)

Lily's story; Lily was born during the last years of the Umans, the world was full of fear and confusion. Water was very rare at this time, and this made people fight over it. There were water replacement tablets available, but this only made people sad. After Lily's father died at war and when rumours of an nuclear air raid to England became known, Lily's mother started to panic. She went to the only man she knew could help, Professor Kling.
Professor Kling had been working on a time machine for some time, but was not sure whether it would work or not. But, desperate times called for desperate measures. The plan was to send Lily to a time where there was no more wars, no more fear and lots of water, to a place all the Umans lived in peace. She was to be sent with all her documents and a clock which could send her back if need be.

'Will you marry me?'

(Mucca and Lily painting, watercolour paint and fineliner pen on paper)

However, what they didn't realise was that Umans had no future, so they were sending the little girl to a place full of mice, hedge hogs and other strange creatures. Lily, being quite a understanding, friendly girl didn't find this too much bother at first, in fact she made quite a lot of friends and had many great adventures. But, being the only Uman left in existence was still quite lonely. Against Hedge Pig and Ivor's wish, she decided to return to the place she came from, back to her mummy, as that was the only place she was truly happy. However, the Uman world did not last much longer, but at least she lived more than many before her.

The Dream Catcher

Dream Catcher model

(made from an old t-shirt, thread, lace and feathers)To see more information on the character 'The Dream Catcher' please see previous post.

Taken from my drawings of the 'Dream catcher'

I have made a small model out of an old skirt which i took to for it's multiple colours, it's shine and it's lace trimming.

The purple i thought was appropriate due to my association with the shade to dreams.

Shaman Dance

Spirit Dance

(Watercolour paint, metallic bronze acrylic on canvas board (15x10))

Close up of 'Spirit Dance'

I was exploring ways of bringing a sense of spirituality and magic into an image, when i came up with the design of this painting, I tried to capture a moment when the Dream Catcher had achieved a spiritual awakening during his dance. I used a golden colour range due to its association with religion.

Corn the Punk Cat

corn

Close up of 'Corn' face

P8180973 'Corn'

(stuffed toy made from recycled old fabrics made for a friend)

I made this Toy cat from scraps of fabric and old clothes and i knitted a mini jumper using a loom. I tried to get it to be as scruffy and miss matched as possible as i believe it gives it more of a personality. To finish off i thought that a leather jacket would be perfect for this little scruffy cat!

corny

Corn

Corn's Story

A Uman bean boy wanted a cat, but unfortunately the boy lived in a flat in a building where cats were not allowed. He walked down the long flight of stairs, bare footed with a cat shaped hole in his heart. Opened the community door and walked into the lamp lit street. On and on he wandered the cold city night, following the concrete river roads until he came across a record shop. "How odd, a record shop being open at this time of night" the boy thought. In the dimly blue lit window was a selection of Pink Floyd mint condition vinyls. The boy stepped through the door. A cloaked figure was stood as if expecting him. "Evening" The cloaked figure spat. she pulled her hood down to reveal a particularly risk-ay green hair do. "One wish, you may ask. However, it does come with strings attached..." She said menacingly. The boy was taken aback. What is this strange form before me? Is it a dream? Is it an angel sent from punk heaven? "A cat! I wish for a cat!" The boy said without much thought "A cat you say... well a cat you will have, but be warned. This will be no ordinary cat. This will be a punk cat! He will feel the need to accessories with pins and badges! He will sport leather and ripped jeans and listen to loud shouting music! Do you take this risk booy?" The figure said. "I take this risk! But how can i hide it from my landlord?" The boy asked "Quite simply, he will appear as if he is a stuffed toy, no one will suspect a thing!" The figure answered. The boy smiled and nodded, pleased with this great plan. She placed her hood back on her head and said some magic words. This is how Corn the cat came to this world.

Illustrations IV / Illustrations V / Illustrations VI

Illustrations VII / Museum sketches / Portraits / The Seer / Gilgamesh / Cupid / Pan / Various

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