Tackling Folk Tales (My Final Major Project)

Red riding hood was chosen since it was already has a familiar story that would save me from having to work on an original plot and instead give entire focus on just the imagery. Also the familiarity adds to the experience. Anticipation is there and it’s as if a gauntlet has been set.  The real challenge that people expect to be delivered is to witness my own personal vision and take on the characters. You see my designs and they are supposed to be distinctive enough to make you wonder how they would look like in the next page. If Red looks cute now will she look cute when she is eaten by the wolf? And will the wolf eat her? How does the wolf eat her? These questions are all about verisimilitude. There will be logic to my take on the story.

Bettelheim’s psychological analysis of the folktale showed me an interpretation where Red subconsciously wants the wolf to kill off her Grandmother. It gives my Red a dark motive to why she reveals the Grandmother’s location to the wolf. It’s a crucial moment in the story since how she behaves towards it directly gives consequence to the plot. The moral comes from how Red reacts to the wolf.

Catherine Orenstein explores the permutations of Red within pop culture and much more.  Reading her book helped me contextualise the folktale itself. It gave me an awareness of who tackled telling this story. I need that sort of road map because you can’t expect to play with characters that have been in better told stories and yet not even know about them.

In the early days of the project I went to visit a nature reserve, this was done for basic primary research but it was also effective in understanding the mind of the characters as they travel through a forest setting. Specific feelings and keywords were listed. This helps me develop a mood and sense of place for my illustrations.