Aesop

As a child, we had a copy of Aesop's fables and I remember looking intently at the illustrations. Aesop was supposed to be an ancient Greek who told wonderful storied with morals. His storied used animals in an anthropomorphic way to describe human nature and failings. His fables have lasted generations and they are popular stories to illustrate.

Aesop’s fables are about human nature and lessons to help us through life. The tortoise and the hair fable tells us that being patient and being steady in life’s journey can bring us success. The dog and the reflection, teaches us to not envy what others have because we could end up loosing what we have in pursuit of it. All these fables are about us and Aesop used animals as a personification. I find this really interesting and an area that can be visually stimulating as I think we all affiliate with an animal of some sort.
I feel like a rabbit at the moment but I would like to be a lion really! Rabbits are vulnerable, very twitchy, constantly on the watch, and have lots of children.. just like me! But deep inside, I really want to be a lion. They sit in the sun all day and don’t worry about being eaten. They just do what they like and seem so sure of themselves. I just don’t know how to turn into a lion. I think I have lion envy!

I wanted to develop my own anthropomorphic character. I experimented with line and shape and through my character development Aesop the hare was born. I used a charcoal pencil and red water colour. I used herbal tea to colour the background. It turned grey as it dried and not pink like the tea in my cup. I’m unsure if I’ve done the right thing by putting him on the blog as I feel he is still very vulnerable, but I really like the look on his face as if to say 'Who are you and why am I here?'