The Self-Isolation Residency 18th may 2020: Day 50

Mrs. Vhd Vhd.

As I began to say in yesterdays post, this project requires a great deal of thought, research and planning. I have to feel comfortable that I really know what each element of this drawing will look like, as in the bucket of 'Moon Milk' yesterday, before I will feel totally comfortable combining these separate features into one image. One of the key features that I really have to include and get just right is the character of Mrs' Vhd Vhd, the Captains wife. In the part of the story which I am trying to express this capricious soul is actually on the moon itself and I really want to capture both the nature of the character and the spirit of the moment.

I spent a lot of time thinking about this for the last few days, I want the lady to seem to dance, weightlessly just above the surface of the moon; in many ways I want her to be a reflection of the figure in the boat below; 'Qfwfq', and no, that isn't a typo either! I want these two characters to be both reflective and connected, but not in direct contact. I came up with the idea of them flinging and catching the Moon Milk very quickly, if you read the story you will certainly see the significance of this act in the flighty freedom of the Captain's Wife and Qfwfq's desire for her. This lead me to want a similarity in the two character's poses but also differences, she must feel totally free in the moment whilst he is more aware!  But not totally aware, I want to show how distracted Qfwfq is by Mrs. Vhd Vhd's antic's, so although he is concentrating to catch the Moon Milk she carelessly casts towards the boat, he is unaware that in doing this he is actually spilling more of the precious stuff form his bucket than he is about to catch. She ignores him, while he is captivated by her.

Part of the difficulty in finding the right pose was the fact that I require for Mrs.Vhd Vhd to be inverted above Qfwfq, so I had to find a pose the would work when in was turned upside down. I went through a great many poses of dancers initially to get some feel for the pose, but in the end it was my faithful old lay figure that solved the problem, Using the figure I could experiment to get the feel for the pose exactly by making small adjustments as I worked through a number of studies and once I felt I had the pose selected in was a simple matter of turning the study around to work from as I added it to the whole image.  The final link to connect the two characters came to me as I worked on these studies, in the form of the ladder itself and was again suggested by the idea of the poses mirroring each other and also 'refracting' each other. Qfwfq holds onto the ladder to brace himself as he leans out over the waves to catch the Moon Milk, whereas Mrs. Vhd Vhd carelessly swings from the ladder like a trapeze artist as she dances above the surface of the Moon setting the ladder and the boat below swaying dangerously on the ocean.