After much agonising on how to portray my third Aesop Fable I think it was time to put this story to bed for now. Over many sketches and compositions I evolved the story into an admittedly busy idea. In the image below I have incorporated a story within the body of the eagle, the left wing joint depicts a soaring eagle, below you can make out the tortoise making his descent into the rocks depicted in yellow below him.
I went with this idea as I think it was a springboard for different media. I have used coffee (which smells real good), inks, pastel pigments and this white outline which I’m really liking! Although I feel this image could leave you confused it allowed me to experiment and go a little nutty.
“A Tortoise, discontented with his lowly life, and envious of the birds he saw disporting themselves in the air, begged an Eagle to teach him to fly. The Eagle protested that it was idle for him to try, as nature had not provided him with wings; but the Tortoise pressed him with entreaties and promises of treasure, insisting that it could only be a question of learning the craft of the air. So at length the Eagle consented to do the best he could for him, and picked him up in his talons. Soaring with him to a great height in the sky he then let him go, and the wretched Tortoise fell headlong and was dashed to pieces on a rock.”