On WetCanvas (a forum for artists) there was a challenge to create something using Aesop’s Fables as a theme.
The Library of Congress, has each story in full (click link). The illustrations alone are worth looking at. Many of the illustrations are interactive, I was charmed by them. Such a great site and resource, check it out!
Using ink and gilt, I chose the Fable of the Lion and the Mouse. The following text is from the Library of Congress’s site. My original illustration follows it.
The Lion & the Mouse
“Spare me!” begged the poor Mouse. “Please let me go and some day I will surely repay you.”
The Lion was much amused to think that a Mouse could ever help him. But he was generous and finally let the Mouse go.
Some days later, while stalking his prey in the forest, the Lion was caught in the toils of a hunter’s net. Unable to free himself, he filled the forest with his angry roaring. The Mouse knew the voice and quickly found the Lion struggling in the net. Running to one of the great ropes that bound him, she gnawed it until it parted, and soon the Lion was free.
“You laughed when I said I would repay you,” said the Mouse. “Now you see that even a Mouse can help a Lion.”
A kindness is never wasted.
All text and images other than Aesop’s Fable are
©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2018
the purple dog painting blog 