Masha du Toit

A couple of posts ago, I shared a number of pictures that seem to tell stories. This time round, I’m sharing two drawings I did myself, which was inspired by a stories.  The first inspiration came from Cornelia Funke’s “Inkdeath”.

In that book, there is a giant who takes on the colours of his surroundings. I find now, when I go back to read that passage, that I got several things wrong.  The giant is supposed to have inhumanly round eyes, and he is also supposed to be naked.  Oh well. Here is the passage:

“His eyes were strange.  They were rounder than human eyes, rather like a chameleon’s.  The same could be said of his skin.  The giant was naked, like the fairies and elves, but his skin changed colour with every movement he made.  When he first appeared it had been pale brown, like the bark of a tree, but now it was patterned with red like the last of the berries hanging in an almost leafless hawthorn bush that came up to his knees.

Even his hair changed colour – sometimes green, then suddenly pale like the sky.  All this made him almost invisible among the trees.  As if the air were moving.  As if the wind, or the spirit of this forest had taken a visible shape in him.”

And here is the drawing:

I think the drawing does not depict the first appearance of the giant.  Possibly this shows something which took place rather later – when Roxanne sings the giant to sleep.  I think that must be Roxanne there, between his hands.

For interest, here is a version with no colour:

Another recent drawing that came out of a book  was inspired by the manitou characters in Charles de Lint’s book “Moonheart”. Manitous are the Native American equivalent of elves:

I’ve almost filled up that little sketchbook.  I’ll post some more drawings from it soon…

The following posts might also interest you:

• Moonheart – Charles de Lint
• Inkdeath – a review of a book by Cornelia Funke
• Cornelia Funke Author/Illustrator