Famine and Death

NOTE: Yes, you saw the finished image last week. Today I go back with more information about the characters.

(Below, left) This figure has no emotional resonance. Just hunger as carved stone. So, I Googled images of starving children ( No, you don’t want to see the many images I found). The figure in the center is a composite of several different photos. Then I removed all color from the image….

In this country, at least where I live, starvation is only something I learn about on the news. We don’t have malnourished children begging in the streets of NJ. So perhaps Famine should be portrayed as a strictly newspaper figure….

This scrap of newspaper (with different print) made just the sort of background I was looking for. The part of Famine will now be played by a newspaper scrap…

I’ve been thinking that each figure will have some surrounding articles (masks for Plague, maybe hand grenades for War?). For Famine we’ll have locusts. I gathered images of swarms, and inverted the colors (Below). Nope…swarms are too indistinct. We’ll need individual locusts.

In the constant battle of Too Subtle vs Too Obvious, I made sure there is just a part of the word “LOCUST” in the newspaper, for those of us who can’t identify a locust.

(Below) Aside from last-minute tweaking, Famine is all set.

Now, Death. This is the place-holder figure in the early composition:

But I love the idea of Death as an old woman, especially the Scandinavian idea of an old woman with a rake and a broom (Below).

So I started casting for Old Women. Old Italian, Old Greek, Old Russian Peasant Women…ya’ gotta love these faces!!

(Below, right) The attitude! The position! Her I.Do.Not.Care. posture. The woman in the middle looks like she’d bite your head off, if she had the energy…

(Below) By combining the top of one woman with the legs of another, I had the basic character I was looking for.

(Below) The skull of Death, wearing her babushka, holding a rake, a broom and her very sharp scythe. She’s now wearing very old boots, unlaced. She doesn’t need to move fast…everyone will come to her.

Next week, the final composition, with all the extra details.

another note: I’m told that my contact email isn’t working. …>sigh<…one more thing to fix. Meanwhile, how about you copy and paste the dianesavona@aol.com ?