The Raven King's Ball

I thought you might like to read a little story I wrote about the Raven King. Hope you enjoy it.x

The Raven King’s Ball 

by Justine Pateman

 

Once upon a time in a towering castle there lived a Raven King. He was handsome and wise. He was advised by his parliament of rooks and he was guarded by his army of crows.

But he had no queen.

One day his parliament advised him to marry. It was decided that he would hold a great ball to which every lord and lady of his kingdom and the neighbouring ones would be invited. They hoped that he would meet his future queen at the ball. The jackdaws were sent out with the invitations. Everyone for miles around was excited. Everyone was busy getting ready for the ball. The dressmakers were busy as everyone wanted new clothes. The jewellers were busy as everyone wanted new necklaces and earrings. The hairdressers were busy devising new hairstyles. Everyone wanted to look their best. The magpies chattered excitedly as they worked to get the castle ready for the ball.

Eventually the day arrived and everyone flocked to the castle to the Raven King’s Ball. The Raven King looked magnificent dressed in blue black breeches and doublet, his long feathered cloak brushing the floor as he danced elegantly. The White Stag danced proudly showing off his perfect silvery blue antlers. The Woodland King in his russet coat danced regally holding his tail high. The Jester danced making everyone laugh as he leaped and twirled. The Frog Prince bounded across the floor impressing all with his agility. All were handsome. All were dressed in their finest. All danced divinely. But the Raven King was the handsomest of all and he danced with every lady there.

He danced with Eden, the beautiful woodland fairy, her wings shimmering as she twirled. Next came paradise with her brightly coloured dress and flashing purple eyes. Then Heavenly, all robed in white and silver with her feathery angel wings. Damsel all dressed in blue, pirouetted elegantly in the King’s arms. The Raven King was polite and attentive as he danced with each fairy, but as soon as the dance was over he moved on to the next fairy.

Suddenly a murmur spread through the crowd. All eyes turned towards the doors as a late guest arrived. She was stunningly beautiful with coal black hair, creamy white skin and a flowing purple gown. Her wings shimmered with purple and silver. She was the Midnight Fairy and the Raven King fell instantly in love.

They danced all night.

When they talked, the Raven King discovered that not only was she beautiful but she was clever, gentle and kind. He knew that she would make the perfect queen. He led her to the balcony to watch the sunrise and to propose. As the first streaks of rose coloured the sky he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He was about to ask the Midnight Fairy to marry him and become his queen.

But when he opened his eyes she was gone!

All that was left was a single black feather.

There was a huge uproar as all the guests searched for the fairy but no one could find her and no one had seen her leave. The poor Raven King was devastated. He took himself to his tower and vowed never to come out until his love was found.

The days went by, and then week and still no one had found the Midnight Fairy. Until one day, one of the jays who had been searching for her stopped to rest by a stream. He was tired and fell asleep. A little later he was woken by the rustling of wings and opened his eyes to see a beautiful raven landing on the bank of the stream nearby. It was getting late and the sun was setting and as it sunk behind the trees and the afternoon turned to dusk, the feathers fell from the raven and there stood the Midnight Fairy. The jay was amazed.

In tears the fairy explained that she had been cursed to be a raven by day and a fairy by night. The jay convinced her to return with him to the Raven King’s castle. As soon as they arrived the Midnight Fairy was taken straight up to the tower where the Raven King had locked himself away after the ball. Only imagine his joy when he saw his fairy love!

She told him about the curse but he only smiled. What was wrong with being a raven he asked? He was a raven after all. It only made her the more perfect for him. The Midnight Fairy agreed to be his queen.

The next day the Raven King married his Raven Queen. By day the two ravens ruled wisely together. By night the lights of the castle shone brightly as the Raven King and the Midnight Fairy danced happily together.

And they lived happily ever after.

 

The inspiration for the Raven King's Ball

I have long been an admirer of the beautiful work of the talented Mandy from Lady Lillypot. She creates the most amazingly detailed dolls from antique lace and vintage clothes. For a long time I have watched her page and seen the progress of her creations and visualised them dancing in my mind. Finally when she created the Raven King I contacted her and asked her if she would mind if I drew pictures inspired by her dolls as I really felt the need to draw them. I felt a bit cheeky asking her but luckily she is a lovely lady and said yes. So here are the the first two of my drawings inspired by her dolls. The Raven King and the White Stag. I absolutely loved drawing them. I love the elegance of ballet and these majestic creatures are perfectly suited to it. They also suited my "splashy scribbly" style and are in pen and watercolour with gold gouache detail. While drawing them I started making up stories about them in my head. It all began with the Raven King's ball and I imagined who he would invite. Then I got a bit carried away and started creating more creatures all inspired by Lady Lillypot.

If you love my illustrations of these dolls please check out the original work that inspired them and led me to create others.x

https://www.facebook.com/ladylillypot/

Eyes

I'm taking part in a challenge on Facebook. The challenge is to create 100 eyes over 100 days. It's called #eyecreate100 and was the idea of a needlefelt artist called Sarah Vaci. So a group of us joined in with the challenge.

I decided to concentrate on British wildlife. It's a subject matter that I love painting anyway and my idea was that if I create 100 British wildlife eyes on one sheet of paper then at the end I can sell prints to raise money for RSPB (my family are members and supporters of RSPB). And then I started drawing.

So far I have drawn:

1. Eagle Owl                       11. Pheasent

2. Brown Hare                    12. Bumble Bee  

3. Fox                                13. Red Grouse

4. Crow                              14. Damselfly

5. Badger                           15. Stoat

6. Rainbow Trout                16. Kingfisher

7. Fallow Deer                    17. Buzzard

8. Adder                             18. Mountain Hare

9. Robin                              19. Puffin

10. Red Squirrel                  20. Mallard

It's an interesting challenge which I am really enjoying being part of. I only have 80 left to do!

The Dandy Highwayman

And so the New Year has well and truly started.

The end of the year is always really busy with commissions and Christmas so I don't often get time to work on my own ideas especially when they are as big as this one! But I'm back on it now and getting on with lots of arty ideas. I always start the new year with some art resolutions. Here they are:

1. To finish my Adam Ant painting

2. Paint a stone a day ( it's the only way to build up enough stock for the festivals this summer!)

3. Take part in the #eyecreate100 project by painting 100 eyes over 100 days

4. Finish of the various canvases I started last year but didn't get round to finishing.

5. Improve my art

Is that enough resolutions?

So far I haven't managed to paint a stone a day but I'm painting them quite often so hopefully that will help me build up enough stock. I have also started the Eye challenge. I'm on 13/100 and really enjoying it. I'm doing pen and watercolour British wildlife eyes on one sheet of A2. I'm planning on selling prints of the finished painting to raise money for RSPB. But I have a long way to go on that yet. Yesterday I managed to finish a hare painting I started last year. I know have a crow painting out that I started so I'll carry on with that one.

It will be interesting at the end of the year to look back at these resolutions and see how many I completed. The main one for me though is to improve my art. I see some amazing artists around and it always makes me strive to do better. Having said that I'd better get back to painting.xx

The Dream Thief

Sometimes I do wonder what is going on in my head!

These images pop into it unannounced. Sometimes that's fine as it could be an image of a red deer dressed up as Father Christmas for example. But other times it can all be a bit disconcerting. The idea of The Dream Thief popped into my head when I was walking back from shopping in town. I then lay awake at night while she was gradually being created in my head and I could visualise how she would look.  Then I started drawing her. My pictures often change a bit from the image I have in mind once they start to appear on paper. Originally she had cloven hooves but once I'd sketched her out they didn't really suit. The rest of her looked too elegant for hooves. Maybe that will end up in another painting. Also in my head she was all blues and purples and icy but as I drew her, her head dress looked more like antlers or tree branches so that dictated the colours.

I don't really have all the posh arty words for my work, I just paint and draw what I see whether it's real life or a fantasy image from my head. But either way these images appear and my brain won't let me sleep until I've at least sketched them out. I do love seeing my pictures come to life but it's quite a slow process from the original idea to a pencil sketch, a pen sketch, watercolour washes, gouache highlights and finally pen detail.

When she first appeared in my brain I didn't really know who she was, but as she slowly came to life I felt certain that she stole dreams. Her long legs mean she can reach into any window to steal your dreams and hoard them for herself. I think she keeps them on a shelf and gloats over them while we toss and turn at night unable to sleep as our dreams have been stolen. That would be a bleak world with no dreams and hopes. Maybe she steals our hopes too!

Wonderful

It's half term so I've had a bit of a break with the kids. I took my sketch book with me (of course) and started working on some new ideas. I couldn't take this with me as it's too big. But tonight is guy's night in my house as my daughter is on a sleepover. Boys have been happily playing Minecraft on the PS4 so I've been keeping out of the way and getting some work done on this monster.

The background has become a very blurry version of the Kings of the Wild Frontier logo. I want it to be there but not distract from the portraits so I thought I'd do it in a sketchy style. I might change my mind later but that's the beauty of acrylics, I can paint over anything I'm not happy with. It's becoming a very colourful painting which I hope reflects Adam's flamboyance.

This is an absolute joy to paint. I absolutely love colour and as much as I love painting animals and birds it is lovely to occasionally do a portrait. I really love painting eyes. It also has the bonus of giving me an excuse to listen to Adam and the Ants music for "inspiration". Do I need an excuse? 

I've yet to decide on a title for this and I keep trying out different ideas in my head. Hopefully I'll settle on one when I finally finish.x

Kings of the Wild Fronteir

Well my friend phoned from Australia this morning for a long chat and while I find it impossible to be on the phone and do nothing I can't really concentrate on commissions so out came Adam and I got quite a bit done on his face while we were chatting. I still have some more work to do on this one but here it is so far. I met Louise while at uni in Wales in 1989 and we bonded over a shared love of music. Guns n Roses, Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus and of course Adam Ant.(And a shared love of dressing up!) A few years ago she sent me a CD she'd made of favourite songs from our uni days and the first track on it was Kick by Adam and the Ants. We even got to meet Gary Tibbs once as he came to our uni in the support band for Kirsty McColl. (He played bass on the Prince Charming album and I think we were the only people there who were excited about it all!). Anyway, we've had a good catch up about holidays, kids, life in general and Adam Ant so now I'm back working on commissions. Adam is going back to the corner of my dining room out of the way while I paint a portrait of a very handsome dog.x