My third and final(?) copy of an Eric Carle painting is complete.  I feel happier now I’ve looked up the definition of forgery and found that if I have no intent to deceive I’m not guilty of forgery 🙂

Still, copying or forging is not for the faint-hearted!  I found it surprisingly difficult and must have been feeling very gung ho when I thought I could copy multi-media originals (tissue paper, watercolours, crayons & ?) with acrylics on canvas.

he was a beautiful butterfly!

What else surprised me is how much I learned.  I had to really study Eric’s pictures in a copy of his book ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar‘ to try and work out what he’d done – which piece was under / over which – and why, what was it he’d worked to convey.  Then I had to work out how to begin to duplicate his work.

Interestingly you never meet the caterpillar illustrated on the cover of the book within it.  This is my version of his cover version of his medium weight caterpillar:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

I love the sort of ‘stunned mullet’ look of both the caterpillar, that has devoured so much he is no longer hungry and is blown up like a balloon, and the butterfly!

The Not Hungry Caterpillar

When I finally finished the butterfly I was thinking “Never again!  I want to do my own thing!” but the postman arrived with my copy of Juliette Aristides ‘Lessons In Classical Drawing’ and…

Hooroo,
🙂
Helen