Monday, October 23, 2006

Illustration Friday - Ghost

I haven't done a post for the last two Illustration Friday topics. I haven't even had a chance to look at anyone else's site. It's pretty sad when life gets in the way of art. Unfortunately, I was swamped by marking (114 essays for the university subject I teach). Then my poor old husband had to have a sinus operation last week. Fortunately, my husband is now fine, and I finished all my marking this afternoon (finally!).

Anyway, I've got a couple of different pictures for Ghost. The first one is a drawing of the phantom hounds of the Wild Hunt. I've decided my dogs are Welsh and belong to Gwyn ap Nudd. I remember reading a charming story about a family finding one of the hounds left over from the Wild Hunt, so they rescued it and took it in. The dog was white as snow, but had red eyes and ears, and a bell-like bark. They had to tie it up every Halloween lest it escape and rejoin the pack.


The second two pictures are derived from a Japanese ghost story I read once about a giant ghost cat. Somehow it just seemed really creepy to me. I think Japanese ghosts are much creepier than Western ghosts. My Japanese isn't crash hot these days, but I have attempted to write over the cat is "Dream of a ghost cat" in Japanese.

13 comments:

Heartful said...

I love the graceful perspective of your dog picture, and the colour swirling in the cat one.

° said...

1st one reminds me of hounds of the baskerville a sherlock holms book and the Japanes ghosts are defeintly better then the west.

Michelle Lana said...

great work, tiger mouse..love both drawings...thank you for the wonderful comment on my blog! take care...

studio lolo said...

I like the feeling of the dog one...nice spirits. The cat must still have unresolved issues! I do like them both.

ELLA ELVIANA said...

the white cat is really scary! beautiful!

Amy Zaleski said...

That is one creepy cat....your hounds are really elegant. I guess the popularity of "The Grudge" proves that Japanese ghosts are freakin' creepy!Thanks for your comment on Anne. :-)

Anonymous said...

It's a Hellcat!!! Oh noooo.....

Liz Jones said...

OOh-- so very cool!
What subject do you teach?
I have 50-some essays to correct a week,so I can relate. Totally...
But I only have to crit the papers, not teach the class!

Tiger Mouse said...

I teach Property Law twice a week at uni (believe it or not!). Marking is hard work, isn't it? And I never realised how much it takes to put a class together. I amuse myself by putting different drawings at the start of my powerpoint presentations every week. No one has asked me where I got them from yet! Only one more class to go for this semester...

Andrew Thornton said...

Such great energy! The first illustration is lots of fun, even if it is from the Wild Hunt. The others are a bit startling (in a good way of course). I definitely believe that animals, as much as people can have ghosts. Nice illustrations.

Debbie said...

Absolutely love this post - especialy the Wild Hunt illo. Great story and fabulous illos! Very creative Japanese ghosts as well. Keep up the great work!

Jana Bouc said...

Oooh, these are very spooky and yet beautiful to see. I hate that when life gets in the way of art but I'm glad to see you're able to post again. I missed this week's IF--just not enough hours in the day this week--even with the extra one.

Kim de Young said...

The ghost dogs are beautiful, there is such a softness and whispy feeling to them... now that cat is darn creepy!