Clever Fish and The Blue Jackal

The Fish That Were Too Clever is now fully finished besides finding a way to seal it. I'm thinking of using a matte spray varnish to finish it, but I'm going to do a couple tests to see if it will affect the color too much. Any other ideas for sealing a gouache painting on wood?

I also have a finish for The Story of The Blue Jackal which can be found here. Like clever fish it has yet to be sealed. I might add a little bit more vegetation to the ground, it's still looking a little too plain down there.

Clever Fish In Progress

The first piece I'm working on is for the story "The Fish That Were Too Clever" which can be found here. It's number 7 on the list.

I'm a little over half way done with this piece. There are still some details that need to be added in on the tails and lily pads and maybe you can see the little sketched in flowers I still have to paint. Right now I'm debating whether to leave the entire background natural wood or to bring in just a few subtle washes of blue around mostly the outer edges. I think I'm leaning toward adding some blue, but any input would be appreciated.

Inspiration, Part 1

There have been literally thousands of versions of the Panchatantra in print, providing many opportunities for illustrations of the stories in the past. I want to draw on the traditional roots of the stories and incorporate some aspects of past images in to my own illustrations. Here are a few historical examples that I'll be using for inspiration as I create my own series of illustrations for the stories.

This first image come from an Arabic manuscript dating to about 1210 and shows the Crow King conferring with his court during the third arc of the Panchatantra, Kākolūkīyam: Of Crows and Owls.

These two images come from Syrian versions of the Panchatantra from the 1300's. The first is another illustration from the Of Crows and Owls section where the crows set fire to all of the entrances of the Owl's cave, eventually killing them. The second image is an illustration for the story Elephants and Hares.

This last image comes from a Persian version dating to 1429. It depicts a manipulative jackal trying to lead his Lion King into war.