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OK, then -- MORE of "Les Mis" sketches!
(If you haven't been following, the "first installment" is the entry just below this one.)
After Jean Valjean's epiphany to become a better man, he broke parole and worked for awhile without the papers he'd had to present to warn people he was an ex-convict. When a factory went up for sale, he purchased it. He was no longer known as Jean Valjean, since he had left that identity behind. He employed many people who needed honest wages, did good works, and was respected enough to be elected the mayor. One day, a new police officer presented himself for duty, to the mayor -- it was none other than the same guard Javert, who had warned Valjean to remember him-- and he did! Terrified that he'd be recognized by Javert, distracted, he ignored a scuffle on the factory floor, involving some women. He turned the matter over to the foreman, a petty, vindictive man, and a young woman who desperately needed her job was dismissed and tossed out onto the street. She needed those wages to support her small child, whom she boarded elsewhere with an innkeeper and his wife.
Inspector Javert. His passion for upholding the law is an obsession. It's his sense of structure, and is as fixed as the stars are in their seasonal movements in the sky. He is portrayed by Russell Crowe.
"Monsieur Le Mayor" is distracted, trying not to panic, when he sees Javert in his factory office. Played by Hugh Jackman.
The young woman, Fantine, was driven by need to send money for her child's upkeep. She sold a treasured locket, her lovely long hair, then a tooth -- and eventually her body to the randy sailors and rakes that frequent the waterfront for such business. She recounts her fall into shame, tells us of how she fell in love years ago, and, pregnant, was abandoned. Her naive dreams were killed -- by Life.
Portrayed by Anne Hathaway.
Oh my goodness, it's mid-February and I haven't posted since December! I am once again doing the 29 Faces for February Challenge, and have several faces ready to show you. (Not fourteen of them, but several, LOL.) I'll be posting them with the 29 Faces in the subject line, and if I can ever figure out the way to get the "Linky" up here, I'll do that too.
I have been quite taken with the subject of "Les Miserables," of late. So, this is what will form most of the basis for my 29 Faces Challenge. I won't do 29 faces from "Les Mis," but I intend to cover each major character at least once. I'll toss a few others in for kicks!
Well, first things first: When Jean Valjean was paroled after nineteen
years of slave labor for stealing bread (and some escape attempts) he
was told by one of the guards to remember him, as he would be
remembering Valjean. A paroled prisoner had to present papers before
applying for work, for lodging, almost anything involving the
law-abiding citizenry. The papers declared each parolee to be
dangerous. Nobody wanted to give a "dangerous criminal" anything, any
kind of chance. Valjean found his way to a bench outside an abbey, to
sleep upon, when the bishop discovered him and invited him inside. He
was fed, and given a bed to sleep on, gently called, "brother." Yet in
the night, Valjean stole the bishop's silver dinner service, and ran
off. Caught, he was brought back to the abbey by the gendarmes, who
were surprised to hear the bishop say the silver was a gift to Valjean.
"But in your hurry, you forgot to take the best!" and put two large,
elegant silver candlesticks into Jean's sack with the rest. When the
police left, the bishop told Jean Valjean to go forth and become an
honest man, using the silver for good deeds. "I have saved your soul
for God."
Rocked to the core, having never experienced such kindness and trust from a stranger, Valjean vows to cast aside the man he was, and become a new, better person. He shreds his papers, assumes a new identity, and violates his parole, slipping into the population of France.
More tomorrow!
I have made a few holiday ornaments, all for different reasons.
The first was for a swap in a polymer clay group I belong to -- our ornament swaps are so much fun! The members look forward to this event all year!
This one went out to RuthAnne (because Santa said she'd been a very GOOD girl!):
(Santa's beard is real goat hair, from Alaskan goats. If Jay is still in business, you can find this at Arctic Fantasy. Maybe I can find a link....)
The next one went to a friend of my dear friend Sprite, because a woman she volunteers with at her local animal shelter lost all her holiday decorations (well, she lost everything, I guess) in Hurricane Sandy. Sprite asked me to make something for her friend. Sprite has done so very much for me over the years; this was the least I could do in return. I chose a kitty because of the good work they both do for homeless animals. The models were two of my own cats, Leo and Cole. It's more Cole's facial shape, but Leo's coloring; they are brothers.)
Last, but not least, is a commission -- a companion piece to one I did a couple of years ago. I had done some generic House Elves, like the ones from Harry Potter, but not specific characters. One of those went to a friend of my buddy Jean, as a Christmas present. I was asked to do another one this year, because he needed a girl companion! I had already begun one as Winky, an actual character from the Harry Potter books, omitted from the movies. With Jean's permission, I used that and continued it. Winky is a rather sad House Elf, having been dismissed by her employer, Barty Crouch. She was given clothes, as a sign of her disgrace, and she must wear them. Dumbledore gives her and her friend Dobby jobs at the Hogwarts kitchens, as they could never again find employment with other wizarding families. But Winky falls apart -- weeping uncontrollably, and getting drunk on butterbeer (which affects elves very strongly). She's a pathetic little creature!
... and ...
It was so much fun to make her little hat! Her eyes, unlike most of the facial ornaments I make, are "store-bought". I purchased some inexpensive ones that cannot be used for polymer clay, so this one is made with air-dry clay (no baking, no temps higher than room temperature). Winky is not really a favorite character of mine, but I've gotten quite fond of this ornament!
Been working on this for a few days, off and on. I can see some corrections/refinements to make, now that I have it in photo form. It's from the dvd (blue ray) cover of The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey. Black and Sanguine Conte on white Strathmore charcoal paper. I'm still having issues getting photography to get the colors right, but this is the truest of all the photos I took. Just think sanguine conte, and you'll have it about right.
Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins.
I've been working on this one for about four weeks, give or take a few days. Since I have no models, I made this girl up, as I drew. She seemed to want ethnic features, and I love the way light plays on dark skin, so I picked up the ball and ran with it. Ran slowly, LOL. I could have made it darker, but it's not an actual portrait, so I'm good with it the way it is; I like her. I used my new Art Bars by Derwent, on Strathmore Watercolor (cold press) paper. Photo taken outdoors in natural, afternoon light. This is the closest to the true colors and values of all the photos I took in different lights. Sorry it was a tad crooked, LOL!
Anyway, I didn't blog the others, having posted them on Facebook, in the group created for it. I was still very busy with my gardens, and was not thrilled with most of the faces I made for the challenge, so I didn't redirect to my blog. But this one -- I'm happy enough with her.
It occurs to me that I didn't post pics of the other shingle shake I worked on!
It started out looking like this:
Look at that potential!!! Can't you just see a hundred possibilities? (Just no possibility of being used to shingle the side of a house....)
Then it progressed to this:
I made a Harpy, a bird-woman from Greek mythology. The word is still used to denote a shrewish, ill-tempered, sharp-tongued woman. The lines are burned into the wood.
But I decided she needed just a bit more.........
I am now thinking she needs a touch of dimension and shine/moisture to the red. Have not decided just how I shall execute this, so it must wait. If I do anything truly significant to change this, I'll post; otherwise, I'll just leave it as being like this.
For a couple of weeks, I have been helping a friend prepare to reshingle her home, or a part of it, anyway. She's using cedar shakes, which need to be primed and sealed first: that's my job! Occasionally, some turn up useless, for one reason or another -- but they're artistically intriguing! As "payment" for my work, I requested a couple of the reject shakes. One had a knothole that was almost human-eye shaped. With a wood-burning tool, and a bit of stain I found in the barn, this is what I made of that one. I sketched approximately the same face, profile/reverse profile, on each side. When I stained it, I gave in to a "wild hair" and reversed the stain, almost (but not exactly) like a negative. Haven't wood-burned in many years, and painting with stain was more difficult than I'd expected. But I did do something different from usual, and learned a bit along the way. That's the important thing!
Thanks to the blue sky behind her, she has light blue eyes!
I have another I'll be working on and posting, fairly soon!
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