Little Red Riding Hood - Finished!

It's a kids' illustration for grown-ups, really, isn't it? Ah well. I'll do something a little cuddlier next time to balance it all out. In fact, no... I'm going to do a cuddly version of this very piece, and stick 'em side by side...

Little Red Riding Hood Process (Snapshot 3)

Finally got around to doing some more; at this stage it's not a million miles away from being done and dusted.
I've had my Vermeer book close to hand throughout. I love Vermeer. What an artist.

Little Red Riding Hood

You have to have a go at the classics eventually, eh?

Little Red Riding Hood is a horrifying, absurd, hilarious tale. Every child who encounters this scene for the first time must be silently screaming "Yes, yes, yes, it's wearing your grandmother's bonnet and spectacles, but seriously, you know, the teeth, and the fur, and the smell. You deserve everything you get you ridiculous girl... what's that, mum? Crapping myself? Me? No, I'm fine mum, really..."

It's no wonder Red's so often drawn as a bit of a cipher - blank faced and dumb. Still, I've attempted to depict her as a fairly clued-up human being whose brain happens to have been briefly in thrall to the insane fairy tale going on around her, happy to be strung out on it's hazy heightened dream logic, because that's the way this curious world works, that's the way the story goes. This is the "Oh shit" moment where the closest thing she presently has to reality - a lupine nightmare dressed as her grannie - is about to swallow her up.

I'll be back with an update once it's coloured. Oh, and don't forget to click on the drawing if you want to see it up close and proper.