10 January 2017

Drawing Tuesday - shadow puppets at British Museum

It's hard to know where to start with these - they're so gorgeous, I want to show them all!



A ghost spirit
Another ghost spirit, with a modern flashlight and show-off watch!
I got into the drawing mood by starting with something "easy" - top left, looking for the cut-outs, progressing to adding the outline of a different puppet, then getting more "realistic" with  depictions of a modern pair. That made me bold enough to fit a single image, hopefully in full and in detail, onto the right-hand page. Time ran out, and my good intentions to finish at home have yet again come to naught ...

 Sue S was drawn by the airplane puppet and its shadows -
Sue M's clown from West Java is made of hide and gold leaf, 1700-1800 -
 Joyce mixes her colours from a very limited range of pencil crayons -
 Michelle enlarged the gold carving on a box -
 Najlaa's Malayan offering -
Janet K in colour and monochrome -
One of the modern characters, by Janet B - Wayang Hip Hop
Details of animal puppets by Carol -
Mags was in a nearby exhibition (Modern Design and Graphics: Objects and Prints from Post-War Europe), looking at birch bowls and baskets - she's written about it here -
A few more photos of those complicated shadow puppets -
A procession of shadows

Intricate cutting!

Scene from the Balinese tradition of the Mahabarata - Arjuna is shooting
his magical arrow during battle; the blue Krishna is his charioteer
The body of the clown Semar (painted on glass) is made up of Arabic calligraphy spelling
out the Islamic declaration of faith

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