Dear Insane Children,
Well… kinda. Many of you have joked in the past that Alice’s dad looks a bit like Keanu Reeves. So Omri went ahead and pasted Keanu’s face into this Christening Scene. Of it he says:
i hate the cartoonish proportions so i’m pushing everyone into a more realistic style
?we got Priss, Bumby, Radcliff (which all 3 have the same exact glasses!) Nan and i added a kid. the toddler will be Lizzy and i need to add some random people around.
just remember this is like “18 years ago” so i imagine them younger, thinner besides Priss because people like her usually look the same for 40 years straight.??having radcliff like Judas/looking AT bumby while looking away both work for me.
?When you guys will see this again- Does the priest have some kind of hat?
To which I replied:
I ?think this is FANTASTIC. Wow. So much going on – and so much fun (including Keanu, etc). With regards to the HAT – I think it’s better to have NO HAT since the connection of this character is “Hatter” ?- the bald head draws attention to that aspect of the character.
A couple of ideas:
First, the Jesus face in the stained glass in the background… it’s distracting. I think there’s already so much going on in that area of the painting, better to remove that so our eye can more properly explore the face/head area of the priest.
Second, If you really want to do something with the stained glass as a background, I ?would recommend shifting it so that the priest ends up with a bit of halo around the priest’s head. If you select the elements correctly, it could be a halo that has Hatter-like properties (suggestive of gears, snow globe, teacup/tea pot, etc).
Third, try to hide a couple of “death notes” inside the image… Since this scene is the submersion – it’s a Little Death. It’s the dissolution/death at required at the start of the journey… from which she’ll later be reborn. So, his a couple of hints at “death” in the scene – I’ve done some lazy skull pasting as examples.
And attached this slightly edited variation:
Meanwhile, Gareth is working on the other side of the portal so to speak…
The scene where Alice escapes from The Snow Globe and emerges into Real Wonderland. She’s met by Hatter in a scene that echoes the elements we see in the Christening Scene. That’s because the two are connected – submersion (death) and emergence (rebirth).
To which I replied:
I love the visual symmetry going on here! And I don’t know that it needs to be flipped… it makes sense that Hatter is now on the other side… because they are on the other side of the Look Glass… the flip side of the submersion. I think he should stay where he is!
As I suggested in the edits for Omri’s scene, maybe consider including a couple of elements of “life” ?in this scene? ?Could be something growing (plants), could be alchemical symbols related to life and rebirth, etc. How about an ?Ouroboros in the stained glass behind them? ?Some crescent moon symbols in the glass.
Here in Shanghai, we survived Thanksgiving. I hope you did too! And we’re back to a Normal Week – where we will have a Live Stream at the usual time/place. More on that soon.
From Shanghai with Hidden Skulls,
-American