The new Illustration Friday prompt is "heights," but oddly enough, the first thing the word brought to my mind was tadpoles. I think I was remembering a mysterious incident reported on the news last spring about tadpoles falling from the sky. There were all kinds of theories, of course, but I am satisfied with the theory that they fell from a bird's mouth (a pelican, maybe) that happened to be flying overhead. Well, once my mind got hold of the idea of tadpoles, I had to get it out of my system before I could go on to paint something more appropriate to the prompt. So I present you with my first tadpole etegami of the season. I painted it with my brand-new, sparkly "metallic" gansai paints, but you can't tell it from the scanned image. Too bad. It quotes from a funny Japanese children's song about where tadpoles come from. "Tadpoles are the children of frogs, not the grandchildren of catfish..."
frog eggs
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It does look like a catfish! I never thought about that. I remember hearing about frogs raining from the sky and puzzling scientists, but not tadpoles! He's a wonderful little guy.
ReplyDeleteFrogs eggs,hmmm,reminds me I haven't eaten tapioca for a while ;)
ReplyDeleteAgain I ask, who can make a tadpole look kind of cute and frog eggs look lovely? You are amazing !
ReplyDelete空から、魚がふってきた！という、新聞記事を読んだことあります。どこの国だったのか覚えていませんが。
ReplyDeleteおたまじゃくしの絵を描いた記憶がありません。
おもしろい題材ですね。わたしもちょっとやってみたくなりますが、ここでは、おたまじゃくしみたことないですーー。残念。
Oh yee, that would totally creep me out seeing tadpoles from the sky or worse falling on me. That will scar me for life! Hahaha. I always love the way you illustrate a theme so succinctly. I love the eggs! I have an etegami postcard in my office. I see it everyday and it makes me smile. Thank you for that again. Have a great weekend or week, in your case. Keep on creating!
ReplyDeleteLIKE!
ReplyDeleteI really like the misty line work that you get with this medium.
ReplyDeleteA beautiful tadpole! Strange, putting those words together, but true!!
ReplyDeleteUsed to watch tadpoles by the hour. Stroking the paddle softly through lazy sunripple water looking for the deposits, soft round clear universes all clustered around the base of a cattail, black centre promise of movement, weight, future. Your drawing captures that adventuresome phase I so identified with - when I KNEW I could do anything - if only I had the arms and legs to do it WITH. Great post. Always look forward to these.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering what the title of the Japanese children song is
ReplyDeleteThe title of the song is the first line of the song: Otamajakushi wa kaeru no ko オタマジャクシはカエルのの子
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